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Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Holiday Baking Championship

Entry tags:

music,
picspam

Could have done without that

I mean I had a decent day and I'm sitting down to my dinner of crunchy roll sushi and I dropped my plate. It hits my pint glass of water. The water hits and destroys 100$ worth of coupons I would have used, destroys a pile of research articles. Sushi sails everywhere. It gets cat hair on it and I have to pick it out because that's all I have for dinner. Gah.

I got my blood drawn. It was easy and she left no marks. I had time to go to the coffee shop for breakfast and coffee.

Look how cute that is

Went to the school, got the stuff printed that I needed and got my plants into the greenhouse and signed up for my shit new insurance before I forgot.

And then somehow it was dinner.

And then I saw this latest insult from the monster in charge ( cut because not everyone wants to see what Trump tweeted about Rob Reiner )

Music Monday - the prompt this week is A song you like from a movie soundtrack

One of the few things I liked from this movie

Watch on YouTube

Ditto this movie

Watch on YouTube

Entry tags:

Winter Song

I mentioned that it was supposed to get down to freezing last night, but I don't think it did - upper 30s, maybe, though, which is still pretty chilly by our standards. We do usually get a freeze or two (or sometimes more) but it's usually later in the winter when that happens. (Is it even technically winter yet? I think not, come to think of it!)

I was off today and I only ventured out to go to the credit union because we are trying to close out the very last one of my mother's trust accounts. (Some of you who remember me from way back may remember hearing about this looooong ago - my mom died in early 2007, I believe, so darn near 20 years ago.) We had to do some thinking (and some querying of my sister) to figure all this out - at the time Mama died, my sister and her ex were getting or had just gotten divorced, and my mother had been very determined that my ex-brother-in-law should not be able to get his hands on any of her money. Which is what resulted in a trust so strong that that we're still trying to jailbreak the last money out of it at this late date, even though I'm the executor. (With help from the CU, we think we've got it figured out. We just need the right paperwork!)

I'm still half-sick, although I've been coughing off and on for almost two weeks and so I'm bound to be near the end of this cycle, I hope. We did manage to go try that Mexican restaurant that we hadn't been to before and it was really good. (I may go eat leftover fajitas soon, come to think of it!)

Entry tags:

Stuck Car Day

The local schools are having a remote day tomorrow. Maybe I'll wait until lunchtime to brush off the cars.

Crud. I forgot to order food. I’ll do so after I get up.

Ugh. -3F/-19C with a low of -7F/-22C. Yep, it’s cold.

Woke up a little after 2 AM. I was going to go back to sleep, but I wondered if I woke up because I needed to pee, so I got up and did so.

Woke up a little after 7 AM. Gracie was trying to get me up, and I was pulling the covers over my head. It’s 0F/-18C, and the dogs came in quickly.

Rob Reiner and his wife were killed. That made me gasp. Horrible. That shook me up.

Ugh. I really want to go back to sleep, but I should shower so that I can brush off the cars at lunchtime. I finally did shower and have my Christmas sweatshirt on.

Gracie: Oliver is on your lap!!! Yes, Gracie, I know. He has a right to be there. Oliver is now walking on my keyboard, knocking stuff down, and being annoying.

I think that I'm going to have to be dug out before I can brush off the cars. I'll contact the snow guy. He said that he'll be there shortly. The dogs got out when the guys were done, but they helped me catch them.

Brushed off the Honda. I didn’t get the Kia because my hands were cold.

Busy day at work. I'm just getting started on the things that I need to get done. Meetings otherwise.

My car got stuck trying to get it out. No caroling today. I took the time to brush off the Kia because I’m sitting waiting for AAA. The guy called by AAA was very helpful and pulled me out. He dug around the car so that I can get it out tomorrow. But I’m dubious about going anywhere tomorrow.

I need to let the dogs out (done). Fed us all. I've just about had it with today. I want to go to sleep soon.

Entry tags:

Chanukah Candles

For complicated reasons (mostly involving travel), I have often had some Chanukah candles left over. I’ve saved them in a plastic bag in what I think of as not quite a junk drawer, which also has matchbooks, batteries, toothpicks, and pie weights. This year, I saw that I had a full box of the cheap sort of candles, but also that I had almost enough of the taller fancier candles. I’m trying to use those up, but I’m not sure that I have quite enough for the entire holiday. I also just realized I should really have separated the assorted leftover ones by height. I did part of that already and have now used up the last of the beeswax candles I bought one year. I didn’t particularly like those, because I think they burn too quickly.

I need to remember to put candles on my shopping list under the assumption that they’ll be on clearance sale just after Chanukah is over.

Entry tags:

Better Than Even Money

I was just too exhausted last night to write anything.

I’d had a pretty social day. I did do a bunch of household stuff in the morning. Then I went into the city to go to brunch and the theatre with a few Losers. (Losers are devotees of what had been the Washington Post Style Invitational, a humor contest that continues its afterlife on Gene Weingarten’s page.) We’d gotten about an inch of snow overnight but, other than crossing the street to the metro station which was a bit icy in spots, it was reasonably clear. It was, however, very cold and windy out. Normally, I would walk from Metro Center to Penn Quarter, but not with that wind. I had a long wait at Metro Center for the Red Line, but I’d left myself a lot of time, so I was still a little early for our reservation. We had a lovely meal - huevos revueltos (scrambled eggs) with salsa, tortilla chips, and avocado plus cafe de olla (spiced with cloves, cinnamon, and canela) - in my case. By the way, I am fairly sure that canela refers to true cinnamon, while what they refer to on the menu as cinnamon (and almost everything sold in supermarkets as cinnamon) is actually cassia. The food was all very good and the conversation was lively and far ranging.

We met up with the rest of the Loser group at the Shakespeare Theatre (Sidney Harmon Hall) where we were seeing Guys and Dolls, one of my all-time favorite musicals. I know every word and every note of every song from it and like most of them. I think the lyrics of “Adelaide’s Lament” are among the most brilliant comedy lyrics in any musical ever. (And Stephen Sondheim agreed with me on that.) While there are some rhymes I am not crazy about (e.g. in the title song, Biloxi doesn’t rhyme with Roxy, but hey, I’m pretty sure Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Benny Southstreet wouldn’t know that) and I’m fairly sure Frank Loesser never met anyone from Rhode Island given the accent he (and Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows) had Miss Adelaide use, the whole show works. My favorite song is “Luck Be a Lady Tonight,” but I also have a soft spot for “More I Cannot Wish You.” The combination of the book, music, lyrics, and choreography epitomizes everything I love about Broadway musicals.

This production had excellent performances. Julie Benko was note perfect as Sarah Brown and played well against Jacob Dickey as Sky Masterson. Hayley Podschun was spot on as Miss Adelaide. The whole show just worked for me. It isn’t the absolutely best cast I’ve ever seen for it - that would be Steven Pasquale as Sky Masterson and Phillipa Soo as Sarah Brown at the Kennedy Center Broadway Center Stage production a few years ago. (I’ve also seen the show on Broadway at least twice.) But it was still excellent and all of us enjoyed it.

By the way, I also ran into a storytelling friend who was seeing the show with a group of her friends. This sort of coincidence happens to me a lot. And I like that aspect of living in the D.C. area.

I'm a weirdo

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.

100 Photos

https://maju01.livejournal.com/2916364.html

Postcard of the Day

Entry tags:

Running Out of Dopamine

Rob Reiner & wife stabbed to death in their Brentwood mansion...

This one made me very sad.

###

Rob Reiner was a mensch. The perfect representative for my particular cultural cohort. His movies had exactly the right blend of sentimentality & snark, his politics exactly the right blend of liberal bonhomie & a kind of Eisenhower presidency wholesomeness.

And he was Jewish. Which means he communicated in an unspoken language I know very intimately. Sigh...

Likely killer is one of their sons, which makes it all the sadder.

I've always had this theory about people who live what appear to be charmed lives, that their lives are kind of a trade-off, that their privelege comes with a karmic price tag. Of course, outcomes that seem obvious today were rarely obvious in the moment. Still. It always seems as though these lives contain at least one episode of catastrophic suffering so the Universe will maintain its implacable balance. As though the absolute value of all the positive things—the money, the fame—is refuted by the absolute value of the one horrifying thing—the pain, betrayal—so you die with a karma balance of zero.

I am picturing that office in Bardo where you sit in front of a blonde wood desk helmed by a reincarnation broker. So, says the broker. There's something opening up in the Orion-Cygnus sector. You'll make movies! You'll have all the freedom a $200 million fortune can buy! But in the last 12 hours of your life, a haploid DNA replicant will slit your throat—very painful—and loom over you, mocking, while you exsanguinate & strangle. Sound good? Should I sign you up?

###

And, too, there was the Bondi Beach massacre. That took place at a Chanukah festival.

Chanukah has been given a lot of attention in recent years. Traditionally, it was a minor holiday, but it's been elevated in prominence so that Jews will have parity with Xtains when it comes to repurposed solstice celebrations. It's a holiday that ostensibly celebrates miracles. What was the miracle here? That a Holocaust survivor died protecting his Holocaust survivor wife?

This one happened in Australia. Where everyone walks around upside down. Horrifying though it was, it had less of a personal impact. But still. I've started wondering again: Which friends will hide me in their attic?

###

I had lots of plans for the weekend, but in the end, I did very little. Motivation is just not there. Nothing seems to matter very much. I could just sit in a corner with my eyes unfocused for hours doing nothing. I wouldn't even get bored.

Is this depression? But I wasn't feeling particularly teary or sad till I read about Rob Reiner this morning.

I wonder if I'm still in some kind of refractory period from the Wellbutrin OD. Wellbutrin is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor; dopamine is the neurotransmitter that signals the brain when a task is worth doing. During the OD, my nervous system was awash and aslosh with excess dopamine! Maybe after something like that happens, you deplete all your dopamine and it takes those little cellular chemical factories a while to work the levels back up to normal.

Or maybe the world sucks, and I'm a Buddhist at last because finally, finally, I get that it's not worth doing anything except detaching.

Who knows?

###

This just in. Trump's response to the Rob Reiner murder:

I can't even...

Biggie watch

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...

Entry tags:

just one thing

Just one thing: 15 December 2025

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!

Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

Awesome Weekend!

I guess I kept my mind occupied enough this weekend that I don't miss the show. It's a distant memory now.

Thursday night we saw White Christmas as Curtain Call. If I wasn't missing my Prom castmates enough, I go to another show where half my Tootsie castmates are either in the cast or on the crew. That's another group of people I miss working with.

The Manor Club in Pelham announced the spring show. It's a play called Cahoots that's like a wacky comic version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I might audition. My friend Elizabeth is directing. She and I have worked together on a few things and she has seen me in most of the shows I have done. She knows a bit about what I am capable of. Still, it's not the kind of play I get cast in. I don't fit ordinary characters well. There is still Peter and the Starcatcher even if it will only be an ensemble role. Speaking of ensemble roles, Curtain Call will be holding auditions for Anastasia at the end of January. It's not a show I would normally choose, but I guess if I am desperate to be in something, I can audition for the ensemble if there is one.

Kevin was cast in Death of a Salesman as Howard. He initially wasn't cast, but I guess Anthony's first choice dropped out and Anthony decided to go with Kevin. He claimed he initially didn't cast Kevin (even though he gave a great audition in the opinion of everyone who attended) he felt Kevin wasn't speaking loud enough. He said Kevin could have the part if they could work on the projection together.

Sian and I spent Friday together. We ended up going to the Bryant Park holiday market (after brunch at Angelina's) and then to the Treasures collection at the library. We went to the Slate Political Gabfest in the evening. Unfortunately I was really tired by then and kept nodding off. We had a great time nonetheless. She said she might come back to NY during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.

There is a video screen at the library that shows a continuous reel of all the archived footage the library possesses. There is everything from old newsreels, to early clips of artists and dancers, to interviews with famous authors and playwrights. As we approached the viewing spot, I caught the tail end of a clip of Philip Seymour Hoffman doing Death of the Salesman. At that point as far as I knew, Kevin wasn't cast. Then five minutes later Kevin texted me the news that Anthony changed his mind. It felt like an omen! What's even better was on display in one of the cases was a drawing for the design of the original backdrop of the play.

Saturday was the first time in weeks that I went out to shop. I have been ordering from Fresh Direct during the run of the show. I forgot how cold the farmers' market can be in the winter! I was able to get to the barn that day before the snow started falling. Riddle was on her best behavior despite the cold.

Anthony had his party last night. These parties are as much of a holiday tradition as family dinners at this point. I ate too much, sang karaoke, chatted with friends, and took in a lot of apologies from friends who didn't see The Prom, as well as their compliments on my outfit. (I wore a burgundy wrap sweater over a black tulle skirt with burgundy knee boots.)

This is my last week of work for 2025. I don't think I will be too busy. Happy to be working from home today since it's freezing outside!

I can't believe the news about Rob Reiner. It is, as said in my favorite Rob Reiner movie, inconceivable that something like this should happen. RIP Meathead!

The only other bad news of the weekend is that I heard from the insurance of the guy who hit me in the car accident. They are denying my claim. That's a thousand dollars gone I am never going to see again. My insurance company said I was only 10% at fault. What gives? Honestly, I think I am at fault. I could have been paying more attention and seen that guy, although he hit me when I had moved beyond the stop sign. Oh well. Not much I can do about it now.

RIP Dr Kinsky

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=%22mixed+nuts%22+%22reiner%22&ia=videos&iax=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DhlvfJWN7qKI

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: NCIS

Entry tags:

Writerly Ways

I'm still rather tired out and lacking motivation but as I was wrapping gifts today I was half watching Hudson & Rex which is about all I ever do (Not a mystery show I'm very invested in but it has a cute dog (who is the least realistic police dog ever)) and this episode brings me back to a point I made a while back with prequels.

When you want to do a flashback (or prequel) you need to be sure of what you want to convey and how effective it'll be. In the above mentioned show it tried hard to add tension with Hudson and Rex's first case together with the well the dog's handler is dead so we're most likely going to euthanize the K9 (something the united States stopped doing in the Clinton era, not sure about Canada where this takes place) But here's the thing it's going back and forth between 3 years in the past and the present where Rex IS Hudson's partner so we know for a fact that Rex isn't euthanized.

So there is NO tension and that is something we have to worry about when we're doing a flashback. You can't build tension when the reader/viewer already knows the answer. We need to be given new information or else the flashback feels pointless or at least a partial waste of time. Learning how Hudson and Rex first met = good use of flashback, trying to make me worry that Rex will be put to sleep = waste of my time. I know he isn't. I'm not going to invest in something I already know (Prequels have even bigger issues with this).

For me, a flash back needs to advance the present plot or fill in backstory we need (or at least want to have). Hazbin Hotel did a pretty good job of this with both Alastor (though his backstory was in the old notes but you can't b e sure they'd be considered canon any more) and Vox's (making so many fan theorists happy) Both flashbacks showed us how they ended up where they were and how they are. Yes we know they both end up overlords in hell but seeing how it happened was character building.

So I guess what I'm saying is know what you wnat from a flashback and be careful as to how you attempt it.

OPEN CALL

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23rd Annual Triangulation Anthology: Bad RomanceBad Romance

SNAFU: Level Up LitRPG: tales of champions and heroes, villains and monsters, all fighting to beat the other into paste

The Deadlands December 2025 Window. Speculative fiction that concerns itself with death–but also everything death may involve

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in December 2025

Lamp Lit: Now Seeking Submissions

42 Terrific International Literary Journals.

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Understanding the Editing Process: What Every Writer Should Know About Working With Editors

How Writers Can Set Achievable Goals for 2026: A Practical Guide to Planning, Deadlines, and Finishing Your Book Boy do I need this one.

ETA - Holy hell just as I posted I saw Rob & Michele Reiner were found dead today, a suspected homicide.

Entry tags:

COLD Day

Got my new sweats. I'm not sure why they delivered it at 9:30 at night, but okay.

The third blanket kept me toasty warm.

Woke up at 7 AM. I was wondering what to do about the dogs and the dangerous wind chill, but both Gracie and Bella peed inside. I’ll let them out in the afternoon. It’s currently-5F/-21C with a wind chill of-11/-23C.

Oliver wants food now! Fed us all.

I’m feeling dubious about Dial-A-Carol later tonight. I guess that I’ll brush off the cars later and go from there.

Gracie was barking at the cats. I told her to shut up. Now she and Bella are wrestling on the bed. Gracie just scratched near my eye. I yelled.

Had a nice nap. The sun is shining on my chair in the kitchen, so it’s warm. I have a dog (Bella) partially in my lap, a cat (Oliver) in my face, and another dog (Gracie) looking at the cat. I’m trying to explain to Oliver that I fed him this morning, and he’s not going to eat right now. He is not convinced.

Now they’re having a severe weather advisory going all day. I’m going to change my Dial-A-Carol signup. I don’t want to go out tonight. I removed my signup for tonight. I didn’t see a time to sign up for later. I’m going to brush off my car tomorrow.

I want to let the dogs out, but I’m worried about my Amazon order arriving while they’re out. Maybe I should stand out with them, but it’s cold. I’ll go put my boots on. Maybe I should start brushing off the car while I’m out with them. Or not. I’d rather stay on my porch. I stayed just inside the door, and tried to bring them back inside in about 15 minutes. Bella came in, but Gracie did not. I waited a few more minutes inside, and then Gracie was on the porch saying that it’s cold outside (Me: No, really?) and came in. Whew.

I’m thawing a little, and then I’ll take my shower. I’ll wear my new sweats because I’m not going out.

I bought a blue topaz ring that says “Fuck it and begin again” on the inside. A good sentiment.

The cold bathroom is COLD. I felt like an icicle before I got the hot water on. Now I’m cozy in sweats and wool socks. I’m making soup to make my insides as warm as my outsides.

Oliver: maybe if I get in Mom’s face, she’ll feed me early. Dream on, cat.

Oh crap. My Christmas cards are now arriving on Tuesday. They’re going to be late.

Had my soup. I got dizzy when I took it out of the microwave and spilled some of it. The dogs were happy about that. I think that I’m going to lie down for a little while.

Had a nice nap. The dogs came in on the first try. Cold out there, isn’t it. Fed us all. I need to go measure the laptop and order a sleeve for it while I’m thinking of it (done and ordered).

Oh crap. The laptop that I was going to take with me on the trip is not turning on. I’ll have to take the “new” laptop. The sleeve that I just ordered will fit it though. Heck. I’m wondering if I should order another small travel laptop. I saw one for $265 that would get here on time. What to do. Okay, I got it. I travel enough that it’s worth it. I need to get rid of the old one.

It's a nice night for some tea (steeping). I think that I'll go to bed early because I want to get up early and brush the snow off of the cars.

365 Questions 2025

12. What have you lost interest in recently? I haven't lost interest in anything in particular but things I like doing, like sewing and puzzles, are much harder to do while I'm living in my daughter's basement. I do find that I'm less motivated to knit and crochet I guess.

13. What makes life easier? Having enough money to keep yourself adequately clothed, fed, and sheltered. Having reasonably good physical health and fitness. Understanding how the culture in which you're living functions.

14. What was the last thing you furiously argued about with someone? It was a long time ago; the person I was arguing with was S.

(no subject)

Today, besides being somewhat snow-centric, has been quite food-centric, especially for my daughter. Yesterday she made a two-ingredient chocolate mousse; the ingredients were canned peaches and dark chocolate, and it was absolutely delicious, smooth and creamy with just a hint of sweetness and peach flavour. So this afternoon she made another batch, as well as making a batch of marshmallows using stewed apples and gelatine. This mixture had to be beaten for 20 minutes and because my daughter only has a hand mixer, I volunteered to do the mixing while reading, after Aria had done some of the work for a couple of minutes. Another food thing was that Aria chopped up a lot of brussels sprouts which my daughter roasted. When they were cooked Aria ate three servings, and my daughter was a bit worried that she would get a stomach ache and go off brussels sprouts altogether.

It snowed for most of the morning and we ended up with about 2 ½ to 3 inches accumulation. There's a slight chance of more snow late tomorrow, but mostly we're in for colder weather for the next few days.

Entry tags:

nature

winter

On Friday, I saw icicles that were 5 feet long hanging off the metal roof of a low slung hardware store in a small town. Nice!

I also saw a great many houses with icicles caused by ice dams. This is bad, bad, bad. Ice forms at the edge of the roof and then melting water cannot drip off. It backs up and, usually, leaks into the building. My former house suffered from this and no amount of ventilation or insulation or anything else could prevent ice dams from forming. It was stressful, frustrating and expensive. I think it had to do it being a four-square, hip roofed house built in the 1920s. Every time I see ice dams on a house I feel a surge of gladness that I no longer have to deal with this problem.

The best icicles are on a sunny day in the late winter, after a wet snow that sticks to the evergreens. As the snow melts in the sun, short icicles form at the end of the branches, like a fairy tale image of winter.

This morning's low temperature was -11F / -23C and the big warm up (sarcasm) for the afternoon is 4F / -15C. But on Tuesday the prediction is for 36F / 2C. Ahhh....

Sunday

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.

It snowed.

https://maju01.livejournal.com/2915117.html