Re: How was your day thread (continued)

[RockyB]

My wife got her first jab today.
And her Mother had hers last week.
I'm booked in for the 6th March.

So the future's looking a little brighter in our house.

[Ottens]

well I'm not dead, so I guess we can call that a victory.

In this day and age, yes!

[mwbaaailey]

Actually, this is about at the halfway point of the day, buuut...
Watered everything down  and rolled up the hoses in preparation for the pedicted arctic weather front this Saturday. Admiral, and anybody else in Texas or the surrounding southern states, you'd better do the same. I know, I know, the weatherpeople are usually wildly wrong, but you never know... what with the wild, whacky, wicked weather (alliteration abuse alert ) we have these days, you never can tell.

In other news, I forgot to wear my cartridge mask when mowing yesterday, so I'm snotty (ok, more snotty than usual, hardy har) and snorty and made people scatter when I went in to get P95 filter inserts and zipties at the local Industrial Hardware store.

*sigh* Someday they're gonna get me, I'm sure...

well I'm not dead, so I guess we can call that a victory.

In this day and age, yes!

Huzzah!

Actually, that's what I habitually tell the clerks at the hardware store when they ask me how I'm doing (No, not "Huzzah," the other thing)...

[Inflatable Friend]

A rollercoaster of a day: A late discovery that (as I'm sure you're all much more aware of than me) BG is if not deceased then doing a sterling impression of it. This crushing low contrasted nicely (possibly in the vein of some choice Farrow and Ball colours) with the immense high that SG still holds a choice selection of the BG souls.

A surprise email indeed that sent these twin peaks of emotions my way.

[rovingjack]

I'm about 20 hours in. got some errands in, quieted my anxiety that's been running very high for a while now for a bit. Made some balsamic and parmesean hummas, and some beef stroganoff, and am in the process of making dairy free "whipped cream" and will make egg free merianges or however those without dyslexia spell it.

I'll be very confused ringing in the new year. I don't know if I should want to leave this nightmare of a year, because I have no idea if the coming year will make me long for a simpler time like 2021. I hope not.

[J. Wilhelm]

Uneventful day. Unseasonably warm, actually the hottest day on record for this time of year. A postapocalyptic glow in the evening.

Evening walk just a few minutes ago in downtown Austin.

[Synistor 303]

Good to see a few more have made it to Spare Goggles... Almost New Year here and I am hoping it will be a better year. Really starting to get tired of the Covid thing - time for it to go away.

Hope everyone has a happy new year!

[Sorontar]

38C degrees today. Hottest we have had this summer, but so far things are going well.
- got the AC running
- power and internet connected
- our pool is responding well to the chemicals I added yesterday, so we might finally win the battle that started in early December.
- I am still on holiday

I am trying to ignore the fact that COVID Omicron numbers are continually jumping, because for me to catch it requires me to be within 50 metres of other members of society, something that rarely happens, and never without a mask and other precautions.

Sorontar

[rovingjack]

made a bunch of foods today

including hawaii inspired marinated spam sushi, topped with a touch of home made sweet thai chili sauce. and eggless marigue cookies (used aqua fava, one from garbonzo beans and one from kidney beans. the kidney bean one I flavored with extract of pumpkin pie spice and a hint of vanilla. the hint of the mildly savory and hint of salt from the aqua fava on that make it really similar to the taste of pumpkin pie)

if all goes well, I'll have home made clam chowder tonight.

this crap year is about done, and it still managed to take a departing shot and took Betty White out. I don't suspect that the opening half of 2022 is going to be much better. I suspect we are in for a few bits of bad news in the next 60 days.

[Synistor 303]

I have been working on a Steampunk book nook of a Steampunk lab/room. Scale 1:12. There will of course be a bookshelf in it, so I am in the process of making mini books.

The trouble is, I have to have 'proper' internal pages (chopped up magazines or white paper will NOT do!), so I am creating mini pages with relevant things on them. Each book will have at least 17 pages illustrated on both sides. Each image used has to be individually re-sized then placed on the page so when I print out the pages the reverse page is perfectly aligned with the front page and I only need one cut to separate them from each other...

My pre-cut pages have 49 images on them, then another 49 for the reverse side so resizing the images and putting them one by one on the print-page is taking eons...

So far I have pages for Steampunk books, illustrations from early 1900 books for children and a whole lot of old botanical and animal prints for more books. And it is not as if anyone is actually going to read them... I think I might be a bit obsessive-compulsive.

[rovingjack]

I have been working on a Steampunk book nook of a Steampunk lab/room. Scale 1:12. There will of course be a bookshelf in it, so I am in the process of making mini books.

The trouble is, I have to have 'proper' internal pages (chopped up magazines or white paper will NOT do!), so I am creating mini pages with relevant things on them. Each book will have at least 17 pages illustrated on both sides. Each image used has to be individually re-sized then placed on the page so when I print out the pages the reverse page is perfectly aligned with the front page and I only need one cut to separate them from each other...

My pre-cut pages have 49 images on them, then another 49 for the reverse side so resizing the images and putting them one by one on the print-page is taking eons...

So far I have pages for Steampunk books, illustrations from early 1900 books for children and a whole lot of old botanical and animal prints for more books. And it is not as if anyone is actually going to read them... I think I might be a bit obsessive-compulsive.    

nonsense, the gremlins in the walls will be most appreciative. and you'll have the best educated mice on the street.

[rovingjack]

brought the landlords and his wife a couple of the things I made in the kitchen. ones based on their likes in food and that I've mentioned to them in the past and they said they'd never tried that. He tasted the one I brought for him and had nothing to say either way. He tried the one for her, cucumber salad, and said he didn't like cucumbers, but she would like it, and I said that's why I made it. because she'd said she liked cucumbers and had never had this when I talked about it.

went to the store for a few things I ran out of. Got back and he came up and returned the cucumber salad to me. And when I asked he told me she hadn't wanted to try it. Fine. Whatever. I don't even know why I try to share foods with people. I just end up wasting food and time.

Anyway, I made myself some spicy orange chicken, and some chocolate mousse from scratch.

thinking about reaching out to network with somebody online, just gotta get over the anxiety of reaching out to people that are more successful then I am.

[The Bullet]

Spent time in the workshop, getting rid of the last (hopefully) teething issues of my 5" gauge TIGER (sister loco of the famous LION aka Titfield Thunderbolt).
Next task is the cladding of the firebox outer shell with mahogany strips 4mm wide and 1mm thin.
This takes a lot of time but is worth it.
Quite a change from the last loco I had in the workshop. TIGER is easy to lift and move about.
Last in was a German class 132 battery-electric.
2.13m long, way more than 100 kg.
There was no way of standing it on the front buffers to check the axle boxes.......

[mwbaaailey]

So far, so good, except I'm doing a bank statement (bleaagghhh).

Managed to get an appointment for Dad to renew his driver's license; he claimed he couldn't get past the operators' accents, so I set it up for him. I'm convinced that my success in the matter was due mainly to calling first thing this AM, rather than any actual aplomb on my part, though I have always been pretty good at dealing with second-language accents and other things on the other end of the line.

[rovingjack]

I'm making graham crackers. 3 types. one with a milk, sugar, cinnamon topping. one without and a bunch of cracker balls the i'll chocolate coat.

[mwbaaailey]

Yesterday I typed the tally document blanks for my Income Tax. In the Afternoon, I started in on my first large painting since the onset of the Pandemic. Whether or not the finished product has a destination will depend on whether any upcoming newly-restarted music festivals survive the Omicron insurgence or not. Time'll tell.

In any case, I'm back in practice again! Now all I have to do is remember that acrylic dries darker than it looks when it's wet (in other words, some re-working is already in the offing  ), and resume my quest for a mixture of acrylic paints and glycerin that allows one to paint as if with oils, and yet dries sometime in the current decade...

I'm making graham crackers. 3 types. one with a milk, sugar, cinnamon topping. one without and a bunch of cracker balls the i'll chocolate coat.

I'll be right over...  

[Xenos]

Took a free webinar on Microsoft Excel, since I'm doing the vocational rehab thing due to just how much of my body no longer works. While I understand the basic functions of how to work a spreadsheet, I figured gaining a much better understanding of the program might give me a leg up on the competition assuming I actually have to become a desk jockey (almost as bad as riding fence).

Brushing up on my bartending skills as well, just have to make the hands work right. Damn fingers don't want to move like they used to, stupid nerve damage has taken quite a bit from me, but eh. Life goes on. Today I learned how to make clear ice at home, as well as brushed up on a couple of classics I'd forgotten how to make (Last Word and the Sidecar, specifically). Tonight, I'll be working on refining a cocktail based off the Last Word, actually.

Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, it'll be more of the same, but instead of Excel, I'll be working with music scales, and I'll pick a couple of other cocktails.

EDIT: Cocktail refinement was a rousing success. The original template for it was a bit too sweet, overly floral. Even cutting the ratio of the syrups to a half of what they were, as one of the people working with it had done, didnae really help. So, my revision to it was to simply add more of a citrus element. That changed the entire dynamic of the cocktail. It brought the gin forward, really helped the botanicals shine, and now the floral finish of it is actually when you exhale, so it's this... really interesting dynamic. Basically, it did exactly as it should have done, and I nailed the refining process in a single take. Small victories.

[Synistor 303]

So I finally came to the conclusion I will never have a full-sized Steampunk room so I am resorting to making one which will fit between the books in the bookcase in our office. Having a lot of fun making small Steampunk things all from recycled stuff and stuff I already have. Each time I decide on an object I have to figure out (with lots of help from tutorials online) how to put it together.

So far I have an Orrery table with some 'planets' on it (from my husbands' stash of really old marbles - I thought he had lost them...), an electrical thingie, of the type you see in a mad scientists' lab, a small kraken and a modified kraken, an old book (open at the kraken modify page) on a brass lectern, a brass mortar and pestle designed to go over a Bunsen burner, a complex brass time-piece and the beginning of lots of books to go on the bookcase. I would be so much easier to buy that doll-house stuff, but I am determined to make the vast majority of it myself. It's more fun that way.

[mwbaaailey]

Took Dad to his Driver's License renewal appointment, and managed to get him all set up for his new license. Yes, license, not just an I.D. His driving record is much better than mine, he has excellent eyesight for someone his age, and passed with flying colors. Plus, he probably won't be driving any farther than to the store, church (if that), and the Post Office. Yes, we were masked and distanced, though as usual I had to hurriedly open the doors with my hook in order to keep him from grabbing the handle. He made the usual "Monk" and "Howard Hughes" quips, but I don't really mind those all that much (lol).

Came home, had lunch, and went to do our weekly grocery store trip (Dad insisted on driving as always, of course. Gotta let the elders have their autonomy!).

Taking a rest now, getting ready for bluegrass this evening. The Folks tell me supper is hot dogs and chili...

[Xenos]

After an extremely stressful day, I decided to unwind the best way I know: with alcohol. I even came up with a cocktail for the occasion to calm my nerves.
As such, I present you with The Red Sea:
2oz Kraken Black
1oz grenadine (homemade, don't screw with Rose's neon red garbage)
1oz lime syrup (homemade, again, don't screw with the storebought)
Shade with ice for 15 seconds or until ice cold
Strain into a highball/Collins glass/whatever tall glass you've got on hand with two large ice cubes in it, top with club soda (I use Fever Tree), give a quick few stirs to incorporate everything together. You can garnish with a lime wedge if you want more lime, or garnish with a lime wheel if you want whoever you're serving to know it's got lime in it, or leave off the garnish if you're going to be drinking it straight away.

It's a moderate accomplishment, since I've not really bothered myself with drink creation in a few years. For it to be as balanced as it is, it's not too sweet, not too dry, it has no burn... I'm just really pleased.

It also helped sooth my anxiety in the creation process. So there's that.

[mwbaaailey]

Took folks to their trimonthly Dr.s appointment (they go together). spent the rest of the day ordering a new keyless entry fob for my car, and getting family paperwork (drudge, drudge, drudge lol) done.

Did exactly nothing on the latest painting, but managed to get some web work done.

Mom had a meltdown this am, probably an isolation fit or some such; I hear that lots of people are getting that these days, when they aren't able to go and visit friends or have them over like they used to. SHe needs to have a real conversation with a few of her friends, even if it's just over ZOOM or the phone. It's one of the reasons I keep going to bluegrass and dulcimer jams and meetings, as long as they're distanced, etc. Us musical mavens've gotta keep each other's and Society's spirits up.

[The Corsair]

Got an event coming up in April but I've spent the entire day getting nothing but bad news in terms of getting sponsors for the event lined up.

Staring down the barrel of Omicron too. It's still not quite in the community here but my genuine fear is it'll scupper the April date we have lined up. It feels wrong to say but a part of me wishes it was here already so it could tear through us and be done by March.

At this rate I have to hope we steer clear of it all the way until April. That feels like a long shot, to say the least.

[Sorontar]

Good luck Corsair.
Act like a kiwi and hide away so nothing affects you.
Or be like a kea and annoy the hell out of COVID-19 with all your vaccines and treatments so much that it doesn't want to be near you.
Or treat it like an Aussie possum and try to remove all traces of it from NZ using any means possible.

Sorontar

[mwbaaailey]

I'm either too plucky and heroic (HA! Yeah, right, lol), or too danged stubborn (much more likely and realistic) to get depressed and stop doing something like this, plus there's the possibility that I'm being annoying to someone (OK, not really, but still). So, here we go into the breach again.
--------
Woke up to a day during our current spate of winter here in temporarily-polar Houston, Texas wherein we managed to make our faucets drip the night before and have thus suffered no freezing of pipes!

Granted, it's not like last year's statewide busted-pipe-fest; not even as cold as it was then, and while we did have sleet, it only stayed on bridges (not for long past 6AM, though) and roofs, and the icestorm that was predicted to occur statewide largely didn't. YES there were icestorms, but it wasn't actually world-ending and no shoggoths or Yetis were sighted, or at least I've heard no such reports just yet (about yetis, I mean).

Checked the youtube feeds, and found the usual weirdly-garbled news about massive power outages and homelessness caused by the storm, accompanied by the usual misplaced commas and decimal points. Always nice to know that its not really as bad as some click-hunters say it is.

Did my bank statement and balanced the thing first time around. Yay me! Here's a prayer that I didn't misplace any decimals or commas of my own...       *nailbite*

Aaaand, now I'm alive and typing this. So, a not-too-bad day all around.

[Xenos]

Today is day... *checks calendar* 6 of running a 101°+ fever (right now it's 102.7°) thanks to a bloody malarial relapse. I feel of utter pants. My sleep schedule is thrown off. My head is swimming. Lights hurt. My muscles feel like they want to rip off of the bones.

I'm being treated, prognosis is middle/end of this week is when things should break/I should turn the corner. Elsewise, I'll be admitted to the hospital, and don't nobody really want to deal with that.

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