lisamarlene's page

One of the interesting things that Google Maps fails at is the inability to select the "easiest route". If you look up the trip from San Francisco International Airport to Berkeley, there are two obvious paths: Head north through San Francisco and across the Bay bridge, or go east across the San Mateo bridge and north along the eastern shore of the bay.

Timewise, going through San Francisco is almost always the best choice, because there's a bypass that drops you in downtown San Francisco, so instead of miles of bumper-to-bumper freeway traffic you only have to do a few blocks of bumper-to-bumper city traffic. But that city traffic is cutthroat and nasty and incredibly stressful. So on your desktop it gives you all three options (stay on the freeway through San Francisco, do the bypass, or do the San Mateo bridge instead). But for reasons I don't understand, on the phone it gives you just the shortest-time option; we haven't managed to convince it to change the route for any reason.

So, it already has an, "Avoid freeways," option. Why not an, "Avoid city streets in the middle of the trip" option? Soooo many of my Google trips become incredibly stressful because, "OK, now get off in this random city and take these side streets you've never been on before to avoid a 5-minute jam on the freeway..."

Lol, that was basically my commute for a year! The school I was working at was just a couple of exits south of SFO, and we were living just north of you. It sometimes took me over two hours to get home, even knowing every sneaky route around SF that I could find. Not fun with a screaming infant Hermione in the back.

Raising a glass to all my sisters and brothers in the teaching profession who do NOT have to go in to school today.
Children on November first are like college freshmen the morning after their first bender... not quite sure how they got to bed last night, exactly how much they consumed, or when their heads will stop spinning, but they have to go to class and pretend to be human.
It's not pretty.

So, because of [redacted for politics], my school is doing a massive dry goods drive for our local food pantry.
The messaging the parents are using to talk to their children when they shop varies.
One of my three-year-olds walked into the classroom with a big sack this morning and hollered, "HEY! I'VE GOT FOOD FOR SAD PEOPLE WHO LOOK REALLY HUNGRY! WHERE DO I PUT IT?"

Insert Ted Cassidy Lurch groan here.

Best quote from two days of parent-teacher conferences? A dad said he tried to get his daughter up this morning and she told him, "I don't have to listen to you; you're not Ms. lisamarlene!"

OK. Somehow I trust FaWtLers more than Google. SNAP benefits run out November 1. I want to help. News and Google both say, "Donate to your local food banks." So, I can do that, but I'd really like my donation to be focused on single mothers with kids. I'm pretty sure that would be the lion's share of a food bank's business, but with other people on this board far more familiar with such things:

(1) Where's the best place to donate?
(2) Is cash or cans better? I assume cash, but then you have to worry about corruption and choosing the right place.

Appreciate your help.

From my time working in the nonprofit sector in the East Bay, and working with the Sisters of Mercy, the organizations I would recommend are:

1. Oakland Elizabeth House. Transitional housing and support for single mothers. Well-regarded organization, great reputation in the community.

2. Covenant House (Oakland and Berkeley) offers crisis support, mental health, social services, shelter, etc. for homeless and at-risk teens.

3. The Women's Daytime Drop-In Center in downtown Berkeley (on Acton) has an online wishlist they keep updated.

lisamarlene wrote:

Apologies if I've asked this before, but is anyone here either current or former law enforcement? I have a couple of specific procedural criminal investigation questions so I don't look like a moron.

Not that there's a huge market for short fiction.
But I like to be reasonably accurate, or at least not painfully inaccurate.

What about CHP boy? Are you not in touch with him any more?

Luke Skywalker? Whingey Wizzard is, but I haven't seen or spoken to him in over five years. And he has baggage around the reasons he quit being a patrol officer pretty quickly and works at one of those truck weighing stations on the interstate... that's been his gig for years. So I don't even know he even has much experience in criminal procedure.

Also he went through a pretty bad midlife crisis a year or two back, totaled his Mustang in a scary wreck at something well in excess of 100 mph (his fault, no alcohol) and by some miracle didn't end up mangled like his car, walked away from it. WW says he's been pretty dark and edgy since then. So, don't really want to go there.

Apologies if I've asked this before, but is anyone here either current or former law enforcement? I have a couple of specific procedural criminal investigation questions so I don't look like a moron.
Not that there's a huge market for short fiction.
But I like to be reasonably accurate, or at least not painfully inaccurate.

(My dad used to sing me sea shanties instead of lullabies when I was little. My mother says that the refrain of his favorite went something like:
"Her lips were pink/like a roosters dink
And her hair was turkey-turd brown.")

This tells you damn near all that you need to know about him.

You know what I want to see in Star Trek? Space shanties. They're in the navy, they're working, there should be thousands of space shanties to help the crew pass the time, and I want to hear some of them!

See, this is the type of thing we should have seen on Lower Decks.

Meanwhile, there has been at least one fan shanty.

Vanykrye wrote:

NobodysHome wrote:

OMG, I'm glad he's OK!

And holy carp.

Quite literally, the staff at the Oakland Children's Hospital knew us by name. "Oh, is it Impus Major or Impus Minor this time? How are you doing?"

I was personally and directly informed that I am not allowed to provide Valeros a proper blowgun to avoid future dart swallowing.

Yeah man. Thats dangerous. So many things can go wrong with a blowgun.

orders not so Teensy Valeros a hand crossbow

BIG BUCKETS OF NOPE WITH EXTRA NOPE SAUCE, as I say in my classroom.

NobodysHome wrote:

OMG, I'm glad he's OK!

And holy carp.

Quite literally, the staff at the Oakland Children's Hospital knew us by name. "Oh, is it Impus Major or Impus Minor this time? How are you doing?"

I was personally and directly informed that I am not allowed to provide Valeros a proper blowgun to avoid future dart swallowing.

WW and I have one good friend who is theoretically allowed to teach Val about the blowgun next time we see him.

So, I spent almost eleven hours in the hospital yesterday with Teensy Valeros because the dips**t tried to make a blowgun out of a corsage pin and some hard plastic tubing and accidentally swallowed the pin.

They eventually got it out with an endoscopy (full anesthesia). There was no serious damage, as he swallowed it ball end first. They let me keep the pin, and I'm saving it for his boutonniere when he eventually marries.

I honestly can't believe that this child made it to twelve and a half and this was our first ER visit. (Two urgent care visits in early childhood for second-degree burns to his fingers and for a nasty cut through his eyebrow, but that's it.)

So... yeah. Parenting is fun.

Toshiba at school. Great while they work, but when they break down, it's "order parts and wait for a week"

Best I could do is make introductions to the local crowd to anyone with a blade traveling through Dallas. One of the best HEMA instructors in the area is one of my exes from university days.
I wouldn't trust him around your wives or girlfriends, because he's an amoral tomcat who makes Freehold look chaste and prudish, but he knows his stuff.

Freehold DM wrote:

Sounds like the sensei couldn't handle his curry.

For me it was the whole, "I don't like this so you shouldn't have brought it," that made me stop cooking for the dojo. We had this incident. We had the, "I made $60 worth of seared sashimi-quality ahi and a guy who didn't believe in undercooked fish took one look and threw out the entire tray." We had, "My kid doesn't like what you cooked so you shouldn't have brought it." We had, "I'm vegan and you didn't bring a vegan dish so you're a d**k." And on and on. I stopped cooking and started bringing store-bought blandness instead, 'cause people don't complain about store-bought stuff.

In short, my experience was, "Entitled a$$****s at potlucks ruin potlucks."

EDIT: I think the worst part is that LM frequently brought what was apparently an amazing seafood jambalaya(?), but since I don't eat invertebrates I didn't partake. It disappointed her, but not once did I say, "Y'know, *I* don't like this so you should've made something else."

There were some serious d**kbags in the Berkeley yudanshakai. Did not know how to check their egos at the door and leave them under the bench with their shoes and their car keys. That's why a bunch of people left.

The jambalaya had chicken, andouille sausage, prawns, and a ton of fresh herbs. It was damn good. But you have to like prawns.

Earlier this week, I did my annual day at school where I go to the fish market, get a whole two-pound fish, bring it into school on ice, and give all three Primary classes the Parts of the Fish lesson outside on the picnic table so they can see the structure of the gills and how the scales are translucent and how the fin rays are actually poky at the ends and so forth. Then I take the fish home and filet it and make cioppino with it.

Watched the movie "Sneakers" tonight. It's been a long time since I'd seen it. It was ok. I did like at the end when the main characters were telling an NSA agent (James Earl Jones) what they wanted in exchange for the macguffin they had. One of them said he wanted "Peace on Earth, good will towards men." James Earl Jones replied "We're the United States government. We don't do that sort of thing!"

Edit: clothed post.

That movie has so many good moments.
I like the "cocktail party".

I am fairly certain that the building they have to break into is actually the Genentech facility just north of the Bay Area. I've driven past it a hundred times. Sadly never saw Dan Aykroyd or David Strathairn in the parking lot.

Last weekend, we watched The Sting.
I was gratified to note how many times my twelve year old howled with laughter.

Some happy news:

Some of you may remember that, two years ago at Christmas, Hermione's godmother and her wife were trying to adopt a baby after rounds and rounds of IVF failures, were finally approved, flew to Philadelphia to pick up their son, and the birth mother changed her mind and kept the boy and they flew home to an empty nursery?

Today, almost two years later, they finally adopted and brought home a baby girl. They didn't even tell anyone that there was a chance it might happen until they got her home.

Well, apparently I've acquired gran rey de los mono's luck with the Postal Service.

The very first Kickstarter project I backed (two years ago), the Good Omens graphic novel, FINALLY shipped from London, cleared customs at O'Hare on Thursday, and was supposed to be transferred to the post office to be sent on to Texas. The package STILL hasn't been checked in at the post office after three days. I assume it's just sitting on a loading dock at the airport?

gran rey de los mono wrote:

Fun Fact Time!

All of the music and songs on Mister Roger's Neighborhood were done live in the studio during each taping. Including the opening theme. And because the man playing the piano for the first 30ish years was Johnny Costa, a famous improvisational jazz musician, each time the songs are played, they are different.

Also, Fred Rogers had a degree in music, so he wrote most of the songs and then let Costa and his crew embellish it however they wanted.

From everything I've read, Mr. Rogers was the real deal, as kind and compassionate in real life as he was on the set. I hated him when I was a kid 'cause he was boring as ****. Now that I'm adult I wish I'd watched him more.

Fun (possibly apocryphal) fact: he was an ordained (I think Presbyterian) minister. Every time he was due to have an appointment conversation with his bishop over where he should serve, it was agreed that there was nowhere he could be doing a better job than where he was.

As an ex-seminarian, I've always found very cool.

lisamarlene wrote:

For once I don't have to be anywhere early on a Saturday, so of course I woke at quarter after five, at the start of a holiday weekend when I could actually sleep in.

I did, in point of fact, bring work home from school with me, so I could take it out to the living room with an audiobook.

But then I would have to go make coffee first, which means grinding beans and starting the kettle, and that would wake up my son. And I'm not ready for emo tween drama.

So I'm lying awake with my phone.

Towels and an outdoor outlet. I'd wrap the grinder in a bath towel, take it outside, and run it on the back porch. Nobody ever heard a thing. Kind of like the midget and the chipper-shredder, but that's another story...

The House of Usher's electrics are a revolting, ancient tangle of asbestos-coated spaghetti, and feature no outdoor outlets. Too old.

For once I don't have to be anywhere early on a Saturday, so of course I woke at quarter after five, at the start of a holiday weekend when I could actually sleep in.

I did, in point of fact, bring work home from school with me, so I could take it out to the living room with an audiobook.

But then I would have to go make coffee first, which means grinding beans and starting the kettle, and that would wake up my son. And I'm not ready for emo tween drama.

So I'm lying awake with my phone.

People often say they hope to have a friend like Sam Gamgee. Let us all try to be a friend like Sam Gamgee.

Now that is an axiom I can get behind. I would wear that on a tee shirt.

After a month and a half of being on appetite suppressant medication (because menopause sucks) I am down eleven pounds... from 222 to 211. My target is 170, so I'm a fifth of the way there.

I lost my humanity years ago.

Err...umm...

Hi!?

(Yes, good recovery. I'm certain no one noticed.)

Calling bullhockey on that one.

So Val and Hermione have taken to calling each other Pietro and Wanda, which is creepy but kinda cute, but they're doing it in a faux clipped British (not Cockney at least, thank the gods) accent, which is just wrong.

NobodysHome wrote:

We have lost Meatball.

*clutches his chest with his hand*

Quote:

So now in our garden is a nearly 3' long patch of warm black fur, unmoving unless you block the sun or pet it.

I don't expect to see him move again before sundown.

DO NOT SCARE US LIKE THAT AGAIN!

For a moment I expected note that he run away and/or got hit by a car or something...

Earlier today I saw a post with a big photo of Peter Jurasik (Londo Mollari from Babylon 5 and feared the worst (he's seventy five, and we have already lost more than half of primary cast, some of them far-far too young). Thankfully it was just an appreciation post for his acting skills.

Same on both counts! Londo was my reason for watching B5.

Speaking of swearing, there's a d**ned good reason Spotify is crushing Pandora.

NobodysHome: OK, I admit it. The sound track to K-Pop Demon Hunters is really catchy. I'll add Golden to my Pandora seed.
Pandora: What's that? You like techno dance mixes! Ok! We'll blend in a techno dance mix every other song forever!
NH: WTF? Golden isn't even a techno dance mix!
Pandora: Too bad! It's what our algorithm says it is!

So, so far three days of hitting thumbs-down every time a techno mix comes on. I must have disliked 30-40 "songs" so far already.

And Pandora just. Can't. Get. The. Hint.

"OK. We just played How it's Done. You must now be in the mood for a dance mix!"

WTF, Pandora? No. Just no!

My kids LOVE that show.

Freehold DM wrote:

lisamarlene wrote:

Dammit, first Tom Lehrer, then Ryne Sandberg! This week sucks!

Im afraid I dont know who these men are.

Tom Lehrer, the Weird Al of the 1960s. (As opposed to Allan Sherman, the Weird Al of the 1940s and 1950s).

Ryne Sandberg, baseball player. Have no idea why LM cares, but maybe she's a closet Cubs fan?

Actually yes, my whole family on my dad's side are big Cubbies fans. I saw Sandberg play at Wrigley a number of times in my youth and he was one heck of a ballplayer.

Dammit, first Tom Lehrer, then Ryne Sandberg! This week sucks!

Sweet Jesus, the reaper has been busy this week.

And now Chuck Mangione.

One of the few musicians who could actually get through my worst panic attacks. (Yeah, I'm old, I've got a thing about 70s horn players, sue me.)

You would build this dream together, standing strong forever.

Biscuits.

This song was my favorite jam when I was thirteen. I still have to sing along with Grace Slick and play an air drum solo when it plays on the oldies station.

So my cousin and I are going to a local bridge club here in Kennebunk this afternoon. I'm scared to death that I'm going to make the wrong bids and play the wrong cards and look like a complete idiot, but he's almost 80 and he's flying back to Sacramento tomorrow and I have no idea when I'm going to see him again or how many chances we're going to have to do anything special together again and if this is what he wants to do on his last day here then by God we're going to do it. And no I am not getting weepy over the idea of going to a bridge club. There's just dust in my eye.

Okay. So.

A friend of mine passed away suddenly on Sunday. As they are Jewish they had to be buried swiftly. Went to the funeral today with minimal notice. She was a serious role player but far more interested in the World of Darkness side of things than anything here. We are remembering her with pizza(her favorite, real ny pizza,I pity you all who do not know such glories) and a marathon of Kindred The Embraced, which we watched at her house for the premiere so many years ago.

My god this is even worse than I remember it. I know she's laughing at us right now. Heartily.

Please know that I love each and every one of you. And hug your nearest loved one tight for me.

May her memory be a blessing.

NobodysHome wrote:

Sometimes I forget that some people's coping mechanism is to avoid all news entirely.

NobodysHome: (To a friend in the Boston area who works with the elderly) I hope that you and yours are safe!
Boston Friend: ???
NH: From the fire.
BF: There was a fire??

So of course she looked it up and now she's gone dead silent because I'm sure she's feeling overwhelmed with grief. But it's really hard to see a tragic disaster befall a friend's home city and not ask, "Are you OK?"

there was a flood here yesterday. I will have to research the fire in Boston. I pray for those affected.

Assisted Living facility in I think Fall River.

Yesterday, at the age of fifty, I took my very first surfing lesson.
I spent an hour and a half falling down, looking stupid, dodging lion's mane jellyfish, and drinking the Atlantic, but it felt absolutely exhilarating.

There's a Belgian ale called Leffe that tastes a bit like bacon. It would make a fine accompaniment to a full British breakfast.

My mom's cousin flew out from Sacramento so he could see all of the kids (lifelong bachelor, Eve's daughter and my two are the closest things he has to grandchildren, and he treats them that way).
He ended up trying to teach WW, Val and me to play Bridge yesterday. The guys couldn't deal with it. I quickly got hooked, downloaded a tutorial app, am up to lesson 38 (advanced bidding).
Why did not one ever tell me this game was so cool?
It's like Japanese black sesame ice cream. You would never guess until you try it.

Freehold DM wrote:

gran rey de los mono wrote:

Orthos wrote:

... and emptied cable spools for tables.

You mean a nutcracker?

(I really want to link the scene from the TV show "Taxi" where the gang is at Reverend Jim's apartment and he has a cable spool set up in the middle and uses it as a nutcracker. Then when one of the others says "You mean the table?" he gets an incredible look of astonishment on his face and says "By God it could be used as a table!" Unfortunately, I can't seem to find it on youtube.)

there are a couple of shows you won't find on YouTube. Iirc, taxi is one of them, likely because of the royalties associated with the opening song.

Just spent the weekend watching some nostalgia stuff on YouTube actually- music mostly, but some tv shows were wrapped in. Taxi was mentioned, but was either blurred out or had NO audio.

I found a few clips from Taxi, but not that one.

All of Taxi is free on Pluto.

We've been in Maine since Friday. Today we took the canoe over to Bunganut Lake. We swam, we canoed, we saw two loons that swam up close to the little island we were resting on in the middle of our swim, it was pretty amazing.

We made it to Maine.
Car unloaded, mostly unpacked and settled in, cousins and animals going totally bonkers. My mom made dinner, Eve made cocktails.

** spoiler omitted **

Agreed. Which reminds me that I really need to fill out advance directives and get WW to make them as well.

I never want to be unable to take care of myself, mentally incapacitated, or blind. Blind for me would be a quality of life deal breaker.

Could be a change in management or ownership, with the new one not caring as much. Could be just bad luck. Every hotel I've worked at has had times where a room that has been great for months just suddenly decided to stink. Sometimes it takes a week or more of cleaning to get it to stop. Sometimes there was a particularly smelly person in the room the previous day, and then the housekeeper is a heavy smoker so they don't notice the stink and think it's fine.

Did you ask to be moved to a different room? Or at least for them to spray it with freshener? Usually they have some really good stuff, like Febreeze on steroids that will, if not remove the smell, at least knock it way back so you can sleep.

WW ended up talking to the owners at breakfast this morning and they apologized and said there were renovations coming in October, starting with the carpet they allege was the source of the smell on that floor.

Happily, tonight's hotel in Maryland is as clean and odor-free as it was last year.

And, fyi, gran, I'm the kind of guest who, although the hotel company's app does not ask me about dogs when I book, volunteers that information at check-in, because I'm selectively lawful goof.

We made it to Nashville on our annual three-day road trip to go to Mom and Eve's.

We were delayed over two hours by three separate road accidents.

When we got here, we discovered that the motel I had reserved because it had been above-average and reliable for the price point for the past two years is inexplicably dirty and smells strongly of mildew and smoke, so next year, we're finding somewhere else. (Same person behind the counter; I recognized her from last year.) I think I'm done with this particular chain. They used to be pretty good. Now they're hit-and-miss. The breakfast used to be good, so I'm a little worried about what tomorrow morning will bring after seeing the change in the state of the rooms.

If we hadn't been delayed so badly, I would have tried to see if I could transfer my reservation to another hotel in the area, but I've slept in worse.

In the last 20 minutes, I have watched the breakfast host tell the same person that breakfast starts at 6:30 no less than 4 times. Because apparently they think that if they keep asking, that will cause it to be ready sooner. Like a child constantly asking "Are we there yet?" during a car ride.

For clarity, this was at 6:20am.

When my students do that, my usual response is "Five minutes after the last time you ask "

lisamarlene wrote:

Today is game day!

And we just leveled up for today's session, so hello, Aura of Protection!
Can't believe I'm actually enjoying playing a paladin.

Is that, "Without barreling over a gaggle of diseased commoners to get the healing they can't afford?"

::blows raspberry::

Also, PM.

Today is game day!
And we just leveled up for today's session, so hello, Aura of Protection!
Can't believe I'm actually enjoying playing a paladin.

lisamarlene wrote:

Achievement unlocked: I have successfully given three separate medications to my dog. Turns out he shares my fondness for aged Irish cheddar, so all I have to do is squish the pills into cheese cubes.

TL:DR
(My dog got attacked by a neighbor's foster-dog while No-Longer-Teensy Valeros was walking him Thusday evening. Puncture wound from fang just behind right shoulder. Vet yesterday. Antibiotics, pain meds, anti-inflammatory med, plus medicated wipes to clean the wound twice a day.)
Yes, the neighbor Venmo'd me the entire cost of the vet bill without complaint immediately after I texted a copy of it to her. Which is good, because it was four hundred bucks.

Rabies check? Or everyone's been vaccinated?

Vaccinated.

gran rey de los mono wrote:

lisamarlene wrote:

I don't think NobodysHome has mentioned it, so I will:

Today is his birthday!

Flappy Chirpday, NH! I hope you got a bunch of useless knick-knacks and clutter. I know how much you love those.

What a shame we can't Reply All to the post and ensure he's tagged in every single subsequent message.

Limey gets biscuits.