Free yourself!

May 29, 2023 8:18 AM

I hope you all are navigating your cages this week. Happy Monday freethread
posted by Gorgik (80 comments total)

“You’ll need to be on Tumblr to see this particular blog.”

Yep, cagey alright.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 8:28 AM on May 29, 2023 [10 favorites]

free the blog from its prison!
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 8:29 AM on May 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

Playing lots of open-world games lately: TLoZ: Tears of the Kingdom, TES: Skyrim, Fallout 4. It seems, I just want to be in other worlds not my own.

Tears of the Kingdom is going VERY slowly b/c I'm feeling so overwhelmed by everything available to me, hence my going back to old Bethesda-ass games b/c the jank is familiar and playing feels like putting on an old comfortable hoodie.
posted by Fizz at 8:36 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

This week over on MeFi IRL, we are at the chapter from "The Artist's Way" when the author asks us to engage in "Reading Deprivation" for a week: no reading. I am screaming internally.
posted by johnxlibris at 8:39 AM on May 29, 2023 [5 favorites]

Lost the family friend who was in hospice last week. I cannot make the funeral, and although I won't be missed -- I am sure half the town will want to come -- I really wish I was home to just be there for people who are busy being there for them, if that makes sense. Spent an inordinate amount of time choosing a basket of food to send.

Listening to a lot of Tom Cardy lately. The sadder I am, the goofier the shit I listen to. Weird Al is my breakup to-go.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:40 AM on May 29, 2023 [19 favorites]

Oops. I'll ask mods to replace with this
posted by Gorgik at 8:41 AM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

I have no idea if this is permitted on MeFi, but I'm going to do it anyways. A company that makes purses is having a pretty good sale. I really, really, really don't need another purse (although I do need a very specific-sized travel bag, which, sadly, this company doesn't make). But I know that there are always MeFites on the quest for the perfect purse, so I thought I'd offer up this one-day-only sale link. It's a Canadian company. I've always been happy with the purses and wallets I've purchased from the company. Happy shopping.
posted by sardonyx at 8:47 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Last night I pulled the mattress off the bed, and the sub-mattresses(a few foam pads because it's not possible to get a box spring up the tiny stairs to the attic-ish bedroom). Re-arranged the slats, a few of which are a bit too short and fall out, which is hella annoying. Okay, new slats soon. Put it all back together, much nicer. Clean sheets are so nice. And, I can still move today, so that's great. Only a bit sore.

It was hot in Maine yesterday and I loved it. Warm and sunny and lovely today. I slept at least 7 hours. Hard to complain about much on a day like this. The dog is sneaky, and rushed out the door ahead of me, then went on a walkabout. I made it super obvious that I had the Good Treats, and once she tasted a few, she surrendered and got more.

I avoid shopping on holidays, but I need composted manure, so off to the Big Box. Then in with tomato plants I bought yesterday. This makes me happy.
posted by theora55 at 8:57 AM on May 29, 2023 [7 favorites]

Goin to make chili today in a little bit, let it simmer for a few hours, then we’re going to have it for dinner, maybe over rice.

My spouse made a ham, cheese and broccoli quiche for breakfast and it was really good.

We’re just lazing today otherwise.
posted by mephron at 9:00 AM on May 29, 2023 [5 favorites]

This Friday is the surprise retirement party for my favorite teacher. I've tracked down 700+ grads from 30+ years.

I realized senior year this was going to be my job someday. I'm clearly trying to get upgraded to Teacher's Pet Lifetime Achievement Award.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:02 AM on May 29, 2023 [40 favorites]

Countess Elena condolences on your loss.

That link: "I'm almost halfway!"

LOL
posted by Gorgik at 9:09 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Condolences to Countess Elena.

....After 2 straight days of running around and adventuring (a photo group outing on Saturday, and a stroll through Central Park for Smorgasburg on Sunday), I am probably going to have a chill day today. I'd already planned on making some pulled pork in the slow cooker and some barbecue-style beans; I also started adding things to the GINORMOUS white-board calendar I got to track all the free things in New York this summer. Otherwise it'll just be some low-key tidying around the house, other small cooking projects and maybe a movie for the blog.

My roommate is dug in downstairs in his turf doing his own thing, whatever that may be.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:23 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Wow, it sure has been a long time since I logged into Tumblr.

I finally got back on the bicycle. Wore elastic knee braces and only did 13 miles, but I have zero pain and will use the bike again to go to a recovery meeting today. I'll probably wear the braces when I do RAGBRAI; I've seen people wear that kinesiology tape on the ride before and now I get it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:24 AM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

Alberta votes today and I'm not holding my breath

I believe Albertans will elect a woman who once referred to the unvaccinated as "the most oppressed group of people she has ever known"

they will not elect a woman born in southern Alberta who more than any candidate in the past 20+ years resembles Lougheed (i.e. sane) conservatism. no, we're going to push that needle to Make Alberta Texas

so I helped with the local riding and I will help again but the futility really eats at the soul. That is twice now Albertans have elected premiers who are under investigation by the Ethics Commissioner and/or RCMP, the willful ignorance and hypocrisy is sickening
posted by elkevelvet at 9:28 AM on May 29, 2023 [12 favorites]

My wife had to unexpectedly fly to the Netherlands (from California) yesterday, to go say goodbye to her grandfather, who started end-of-life palliative care on Sunday morning. So it's just me, our three dogs and cat at home today, and I'll be working in the garden(s) around the house all day. Part awful, part bliss? Like all of life, I suppose.
posted by LooseFilter at 9:40 AM on May 29, 2023 [7 favorites]

The wheel, still apparently fine to eat, is quite possibly the most substantive item of food I have ever acquired.
posted by Wordshore at 9:41 AM on May 29, 2023 [10 favorites]

I snagged a rack of pork ribs on sale Saturday. I applied dry rub last night and stuck it back in the fridge; in an hour or so I'll fire up the smoker. Looking forward to the house smelling good for a few hours! I've also got some kale to sauté, and potatoes for roasting. So that's my day planned out.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:44 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

The joys of sleeping in til noon.

Is today’s holiday a Tears of the Kingdom day, or is it a day of asking Stable Diffusion to draw me another thousand variations of massive bioluminescent flying jellyfish devouring burning cities?

Because those are my two favorite activities right now. I’ve been chasing the latter sporadically through almost two years of generative art development and - if I’m being honest - still haven’t gotten anywhere close to the images in my head. It’s some pretty cliched shit, but I really need to see some gorgeous disaster movie poster side profile shots of a big blue jellyfish using its tentacles to slowly lift massive skyscraper chunks (with bits falling off them) inexorably towards its maw, above a city half-reduced to ashes and lava.

I just …really need to make those images exist. Almost as much as I need to keep playing Zelda. Hmm.
posted by Ryvar at 9:52 AM on May 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

The wheel, still apparently fine to eat, is quite possibly the most substantive item of food I have ever acquired.

So, Wordshore....I followed all your comments back through to the original comment - and was disappointed to find that you never did post a picture of said wheel of cheese in its initial form.

So....about how big was it?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on May 29, 2023 [10 favorites]

I went to three theater shows over the weekend, which was great fun. I highly recommend "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812" if it ever comes to your neck of the woods (I note the other shows I saw are so rare there's no point in pimping to others). It was a delight, and also a hoot to know someone in the show when he pitches woo at you ;)

Avenue Q has ended, so I presumably don't have to hear about that one any more. Finally. Whew. I'm sure it's incredibly sad for those who got in it and now it's over, though. Maybe my sad jealousy will finally go away?

I am having a sleep-in day. Presumably at some point I may roll out to go to a county fair, but I am feeling lazy so so far I have not.

The good news: I got into Much Ado as Hero, a part I would have never figured I would get (I note that at best I would have come in third for Beatrice, since the previous B&B who did it last time returned and got the parts again), so I'm pretty chuffed. However, they are EXTREMELY SHORT ON PEOPLE FOR THIS and I'm really surprised the show is still going on under those circumstances of not having more than six people. I can't say I've gotten anywhere with talking to people about it ("eh... I just wanna flake...it's like, hard to drive to another town instead of the theater down the street....") and it seems like everyone I know with penises got into Sweeney Todd or SpongeBob or something else, so. I haven't officially said no to the other theater yet but should probably do it, but I keep wondering if it'll get canceled since so far fishing up other people doesn't seem to have done much. My guy friend in the show is all "eh, we had this issue with Shakespeare last year, people turned up," but this seems.... a lot.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:02 AM on May 29, 2023 [7 favorites]

Now that I know what city we’re expecting to live in for the foreseeable future we started talking to a mortgage broker and nope. We’re not even close.

Maybe if Tiny Monster ever starts talking to us we can stop paying his speech therapist’s mortgage payments and look again.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 10:09 AM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

Credit to the creator: Original source for the video at the link is Foster Friends on TikTok. If linking, we should link to the original from the creator of the video. They work with Solas Animal Rescue in the Omaha region. (This video always makes me laugh when I see it too.)
posted by rednikki at 10:13 AM on May 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

As a contractor, I'm beholden to "The Man," who tells me I can't take a holiday without burning vacation time. Thankfully, I work remotely, so I'm productively surfing MeFi and commenting for the first time in a decade+.
posted by nightengine at 10:15 AM on May 29, 2023 [24 favorites]

We just got back from 8 nights in the Colorado Rockies, and it was pretty freaking spectacular all things considered. I saw 25 new to me bird species without trying too hard. Considering all of the crap that happened in the past month or so, including my spouse getting a very serious C. diff infection that would have kept us from traveling if it happened a week later and her 96 year-old father going in and out of the hospital, I'm amazed we pulled the trip off at all. We somehow even managed to play the timed entry passes into Rocky Mountain National Park just right, too.

In the bigger picture, our son is doing well enough in college to stay in school, and seems to be getting his feet under him. My spouse is feeling better but not 100% (don't get C. diff). I've got a few more days off to putz around the house and do some local birding and hiking before my vacation ends, and I feel like I can finally relax enough to enjoy that.
posted by mollweide at 10:27 AM on May 29, 2023 [6 favorites]

I've been working my way through Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System I got at the end of last month. After getting extremely lost in a dungeon for several hours, miraculously making it back to town with Alis as the only survivor with a single hit point, a decision had to be made. Up to this point, I had been playing the game with the manual alone, no outside resources. It was time to decide whether to abandon that method and start looking up the dungeon and tower maps online or continue the old fashioned way and get myself some graph paper. I chose the latter option. I believe I'm most of the way through the game, and I've got pages and pages of maps and notes to prove it.

Once I'm done with this, it's either Ys or Miracle Warriors next -- I haven't decided. (I'd also still like to pick up Ultima IV at some point.)
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:32 AM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

Last week was very intense for me, work wise, and I have been pretty exhausted all weekend. I think I'll take a short nap now, and see if I can get a bit of work done later.
What I have achieved today was in the kitchen. Way back during the winter, I bought a whole box of limes, juiced them and made XL ice balls out of the juice. Now is their time to shine: two balls in a pitcher of water with the same volume of sugar to lime juice, and a pinch of salt. This is so refreshing!
For lunch I felt like a classic spaghetti with tomato sauce, and I made a sauce with just passata, garlic, anchovies, chili and oregano, very simple, and cooked down to an almost jammy consistency. With the spaghetti, it looked very much like the beloved tinned Heinz spaghetti of my childhood, but the taste was a very adult, in a good way.

Meanwhile, it is finally early summer. Not very warm, but sunny and green and full of friendly people.
posted by mumimor at 10:32 AM on May 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

I have never watched a full episode of Critical Role, and yet this morning I had a dream in which I invited Matt Mercer to come play games at a friend's house next week.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 10:45 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

After spending over a year in the middle of rereading Gideon the Ninth, I finished it, reread Harrow in about three days, and inhaled Nona in two.
And now, dammit, I have to wait for the fourth one.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 10:46 AM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

The Great Big Mulp: Ys! Ys! I love the whole series, but especially the first two games.

My own holiday weekend gaming has been occupied by Everything and Meowtopia: Expedition, two great games that couldn’t be more different from each other.
posted by May Kasahara at 11:00 AM on May 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

Alberta votes today and I'm not holding my breath

I believe Albertans will elect a woman who once referred to the unvaccinated as "the most oppressed group of people she has ever known"

they will not elect a woman born in southern Alberta who more than any candidate in the past 20+ years resembles Lougheed (i.e. sane) conservatism. no, we're going to push that needle to Make Alberta Texas

I was going to say, they did elect a guy from Oakville, ON who dropped out of school to work for a provincial Liberal party, but I suppose that was just a by-election. It hardly counts.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:01 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Theora55, I did much the same thing to my bed yesterday! Took off the mattress, pulled out the slats, and then used my bed key to tighten the ropes. (Explanation, for the curious.) Put it all back, fresh sheets, and slept like a baby.
posted by minervous at 11:08 AM on May 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

Oh goodness! It's what they did before they had box springs for beds! I had no idea that even existed and thank you!
posted by hippybear at 11:11 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yesterday, I watched "Piaffe (2022)". This is such a strange movie.

I went to watch it because I like movies that inspect the art of moviemaking (Ars gratia artis much?) and this one does Foley: Soundmaking.

The premise seems simple up to a point: A lady takes up the job of her sister (who got sick) to foley up a simple 60 second ad based on horseriding footage. Hence the title.

Then she discovers she is growing a horse tail herself.

So, I understand why this won some prizes in Locarno and Chicago and Calgary.

At one point I went wait, the original horse sounds she's researching in that stable - they must all be Foley, too? Mind blown.

And some of the takes are very pretty, too: Lady gets up from her bed in the morning and walks to the window, all shown modestly from behind, and has a fully grown horse tail now.

I do not understand any of the characters, though. Why would you look out a window wearing NOTHING? There's a botanist who watches ferns growing in, of all things, a raree show. And that sick sister above throws gift strawberries at her replacement.

Anyway.

Dentist day tomorrow yay! Remember that dentist free thread a month back? Not gonna revive anything. Let's hear about that free cheese wheel instead!
posted by flamewise at 11:18 AM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

A few days back, the Wordle solution was RAMEN. I had to look it up. Yep, Scrabble says "ramen" is an English word now. Huh. Patiently waiting now for the solution to be WUXIA. (Yep, also English, says Scrabble.) That should pop a few heads.
posted by SPrintF at 11:19 AM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

Coming out of my cage, and I've been doing just fine.
posted by curious nu at 11:57 AM on May 29, 2023 [6 favorites]

So I got my pruning job done a while back and the grass seed I planted is coming in! I promised photos. This is the before, I had to grab this off of Street View because I don't live the "take a photo of everything" lifestyle. This is the after. About 40 hours of work underneath and behind the bush, took out a mound of dead material about the size of my car. Eight station wagon loads to the green recycling. The poor thing is a bit shell shocked, but I look forward to looking at it again next spring for further refining.
posted by hippybear at 12:07 PM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

Per taz' request, another recipe:

Get a whole thing of maple syrup. Actual, genuine, Grade B maple syrup. Do not get Grade A. Grade A sucks. It doesn't mean what you think it means. No time to explain. Dump the entire thing into a big-ass pot.

Crank the fire up under the pot to not all the way high. Like, back it off more than a bit. There's sugar in there and you know what sugar smells like when it burns?

Stand around anxiously while the syrup boils for ever and ever until the syrup is at 235F / 110C. Not every thermometer goes up this high so make sure you have one. If you're not sure you do, you're about to find out the hard way like I did the first time I tried this.

Discover, like I did, that omg it takes forever to get those last few degrees. Like, forever. You can occupy your time by sticking a wooden spoon in there and swozzling it around from time to time but it doesn't actually help. Just stand there full of anxiety, okay?

Once you've hit that 235F / 110C, which took you forever. Do nothing. At all. Absolutely nothing. And under no circumstances are you to stir, fold, spindle or mutilate the liquid. Just... stand there glaring at it.

Fine, you're sick of staring at hot sugar, right? It's too early but go ahead and poke your thermometer in there. It's not down to the 175F / 80C you're trying to cool it to. It's not. It takes way longer. Just stand there, I said. Don't wander away because the moment it hits your temp you're springing into action.

Sure, alright, wander away. Go set up a baking sheet. If you have some parchment paper you can lay it out on there but it's not strictly necessary. Besides, parchment paper these days isn't strictly parchment paper. They infuse it with silicone. No, really, go look. Do you really need to blow some silicone on this?

Check that temperature. 175F / 80C yet? It probably cooled just past that because you blinked, that's okay. Grab your battered wooden spoon and swozzle like your life depended on it. Swozzle until your arm is sore. Keep swozzling.

Now that the substance went from a liquid to a creamy substance that gave you a sore arm from five full minutes of swozzling, pour the whole thing out on the sheet. Scramble for a scraper thing. The grainy stuff at the end of the pour will not be fun to get out of the pot and you're going to wish you had someone to help you scrape it out.

Wander away. For a long time.

Your maple sugar candy is ready.

Actually, I lied. It's ready, but it's not ready-ready. You can eat some but leave it until tomorrow. Tomorrow, whack it into chunks, put the chunks into a thing, and set the thing of candy out. Sweep all the resulting crumbs from whacking into a little dish and put the dish in the coffee area.
posted by majick at 12:51 PM on May 29, 2023 [10 favorites]

I ran out of milk for my coffee this morning, and I didn’t really like putting butter in it last time I tried that (pace bulletproof coffee evangelists) but I did have some kefir.

Not just any kefir though, but a quart of really old whole cow's milk kefir I discovered unopened far back on the top shelf of my fridge — not the first time this has happened to me, either — with a use by date of 'Dec 04 2021' and which I opened up and drank a few ounces of a couple of days ago.

So I knew it probably wasn’t going to make me sick, and after trying alternating sips of coffee and kefir with acceptable results, I added the kefir directly to the hot coffee, which I drink about a pint of daily from a tiny two ounce vacuum-insulated glass demitasse cup.

It was delicious! And not only that, when the kefir hit the hot coffee it bloomed into a crema at least twice as thick as anything I’ve ever had from steamed milk. I presume that was a defense mechanism deployed against the heat by the kefir bacteria.

I only hope it doesn’t require kefir a year and a half old to achieve the same effects next time around.
posted by jamjam at 12:57 PM on May 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

Welp - I have also cleaned out the fridge a bit, and gotten things a little more sorted for cooking through the week. ...I'm on an Italian kick lately, mainly because of a bean-focused cookbook I've just gotten combined with a rewatch of Call Me By Your Name; I've stockpiled a few more Italian ingredients than I usually get and have been cooking up various types of beans for various and sundry things.

And thus the past couple nights I've been having fettucine with a variety of bean sauces, have a weeks' worth of lunches all prepped thanks to two kinds of bean salads, and I can probably use up the last of a couple of the bean batches with another salad involving anchovies. Rounding out the lunches with snacks like dried apricots and crackers and cheese is a piece of cake too. And - for kicks and giggles I made some brownies today.

....

The community garden is also slowly rocking along....there was a member we had last year, someone who didn't quite seem to fit in with the vibe of the place; she always seemed to want the garden to be doing way more community outreach, and seemed to want more organization, but she never really took the steps to lead a project; she was more one of those "we should totally be doing [blank] but someone else needs to start that because I can't" people. (I also over time started to get the idea that she had a weird sort of crush on me, and I wasn't sure how to handle that since it may have been in my head, but it was a weird vibe.)

But then when we started back up again this season, she never responded to any of the calls asking members if they were returning. (And I know, because I sent those emails out.) So we gave her up for lost and opened her plot to someone else.

Well - I ran into her this weekend. She first claimed that she never got any emails about coming back to the garden; but when I said that I had sent several to all the addresses we had for her, she just mumbled that she didn't know what happened there and changed the subject. She's also joined another garden anyway and raved about it, and encouraged me to visit. I politely said some kind of "maybe someday if there's time" non-answer. And when I looked into it later...the other garden is like 3 times the size of ours, with much more space, many more members and way more resources. And - yeah, we would never have been able to do any of the Big Community Outreach stuff she wanted because we have the merest fraction of the manpower and people.

But the thing that bugged me is that she wrote off the vibe of our garden as "people just trying to recreate the suburban back yard experience". And....honestly, what's wrong with that? She was looking for something with community education seminars or something, and we're just, like, a nice spot to chill out with a book and if you wanna try growing your own peas, cool. And I'm okay with that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:11 PM on May 29, 2023 [8 favorites]

Tears of the Kingdom is going VERY slowly b/c I'm feeling so overwhelmed by everything available to me

I can sympathise with this. I had to actually rework how I approached this Zelda game in order to enjoy it. I find meting it out in smaller doses and to approach it, initially, as me walking in a painting and pushing the idea of completion far to the side as a better course of action. Though I do find how some people who have devoted 50+ hours to it a bit crazy. A nephew had lent us his PS4 which had a few games including the Ghost of Tsushima which I've been enjoying as a counterpoint, it being a open-ish world game.

Alberta votes today and I'm not holding my breath

Danielle Smith is easily the worst Canadian politician in a good long time. And I say that as someone who lives in Ontario.
posted by Ashwagandha at 1:27 PM on May 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

This past week, I discovered that Trader Joe's brown rice cake thins spread with a little butter and a little Trader Joe's lemon curd are a delicious and surprisingly low-calorie midmorning snack.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 2:44 PM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

1. Saw "Rote Himmel" / "Afire" by Christian Petzold last week and it's a great, small, curio of a film, as all of Petzold's best movies are ("Barbara" and "Phoenix" are I think his best known). It's about X and Y, it's about youth, it's about being a big fucking dummy, it's about being too young and too earnest - it's not about any one thing to the point of over-saturation, though, which is Petzold's super-power. It's about a small knot of people who pass through the same brief period of time and their interactions within that. It was very satisfying - his previous film "Undine" was not as satisfying so I was really glad this one was.

2. Heard a great band, "Ron Gallo" in a forest about two hours north of Berlin. Some festival that a friend kind of celebrated his birthday at. Except we're a touch too old and not as into getting high and dancing all night as the rest of the festival goers. Actually, we didn't even stay/ camp there, but left around 10pm (after watching "Bulgarian Cartrader" who do Berlin dance/rock/pop very very well) - I'm not a camper. But the band, Ron Gallo - from Philly and steeped gloriously in art rock and punk and garage band - were a real find. Great lyrics, reminded me of the Minutemen and X. (That's how old I am.)

3. Ate some 'cream, Ground Elder and mushrooms with pasta' earlier today at a friends' - I had the honour of picking the Ground Elder which involved interacting with a frightening number of mosquitos who were lounging about in the shade, waiting for a mammal of some sort to happen by. We all ate well.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:17 PM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

I just finished this free stream of Richard III from last summer, featuring Danai Gurira (of Black Panther) as Richard. I liked it a lot. (Also, strong second to jenfullmoon on Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. It's neat and there's a local production next year, I'm looking forward to it.)

I feel like I should have more to show for a long weekend, but the laundry and dishes are both done and put away, and a few more feet of turf grass went under mulch, and that's probably good enough.
posted by mersen at 3:28 PM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Had a great volunteer shift Saturday, coffee with a friend Sunday morning, then a massage, then beer and Cowordle with another friend Sunday afternoon. Running this morning, and drinks with myself this afternoon. Pretty good weekend.
posted by Gorgik at 3:28 PM on May 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

I can't see the link because I'm not on Tumblr, but as far as I can tell, I've been comin' out of my cage and I've been doin' just fine.

1) I've accomplished almost nothing this weekend (which is fine) except for writing a blog post for my site on how to organize yourself for summer so that it doesn't disappear on you. The thing is that I told myself that for 2023, I could skip my weekly blogging on holiday Mondays, but I took the Monday after Mother's Day off because I was traveling (to see my mom) and I know that if I skip a second writing event in such close proximity I.WILL.STRUGGLE.TO.EVER.RESTART.

2) I started my summer book. Two years ago, a friend agreed to read Anna Karenina with me because I'd been struggling to read it since I was a teen. I'd once gotten halfway before losing interest. But we started on Memorial Day weekend and I'd finished by July 4th. We debated and disagreed about a book for this year — I wanted Middlemarch but Eliot and Silas Marner had pained her in high school; she wanted Frankenstein, which I read recently enough to know I didn't like it and long enough ago to know I should pay more attention to its historical and sociological significance than I feel ready for. So, we're reading Vanity Fair.

3) The last annoying thing I have to do before my summer stars in earnest is to finish the "script" for a webinar I'm presenting on Friday. But I gave myself permission to NOT work on it on this holiday, even though (except for the aforementioned blog post writing) I've been very lazy all weekend.

Also, the Wordle "ramen" threw me off, and I thought it was odd that it was the same week as "bagel." It felt like a theme week.

And sardonyx, those purses are cool. Even though I never own more than one purse (and one evening bag) at a time, and generally keep a purse until it wears out, I enjoyed window shopping at your link.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 3:40 PM on May 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

I took my 15-year-old back-yard rescue arthritic deaf toothless half-blind cat with kidney disease to be put to sleep yesterday and I am very sad, because you can do the right thing and still feel horrible about it, even though the veterinarian said her kidneys were "crunchy" and I was doing the right thing by not keeping her alive to make myself feel better. My grown kid rushed down to be with me at the vet, insisted on paying for the euthanasia, and took me out for coffee and a long cry, and my son-in-law bought me a Nintendo Switch and "Breath of the Wild" because, knowing the cat was dying and I was going to have to do something with the two hours a day she spent in my lap, I had talked to him about what I should get.

So I'm playing a video game and crying and saying out loud, "There is no cat," just to remind myself because I keep looking for her.

I have so far made it out of the cave to outside in the game, because I am 71 and the last game I played was "Myst," but what the heck.
posted by Peach at 3:43 PM on May 29, 2023 [30 favorites]

Oh, Peach, I am so very sorry. They definitely take a piece of you when they go. Kudos to you for putting her first, that is the most selfless, loving thing you could do.


Actual, genuine, Grade B maple syrup. Do not get Grade A. Grade A sucks. It doesn't mean what you think it means.

Thank you! People always look at me funny when I say I prefer Grade B maple syrup, but there, I do, and that's that.

Working all weekend (it's one of the busy times in the meat department of a supermarket in the US). People, please know your meat when you ask for something from the butcher. Don't say T-Bone when you really want Porterhouse. Because it's a waste of a cut if you don't know which one has the tenderloin on it.

On the other hand, I did work on my backyard - replacing old carpet remnants that were a sort of psuedo patio and purchasing new woven plastic outdoor rugs. It looks fresh and lovely and I hope some time to not work six days a week and get a chance to enjoy it.
posted by annieb at 4:40 PM on May 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

MetaFilter: please know your meat when you ask for something
posted by hippybear at 4:46 PM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

Larry David Syndrome, Jr. just got his learner's permit last week. Today was the day that we graduated from driving around parking lots and graveyards to a little actual on-the-road driving on lightly traveled side streets. I was proud of both of us- I was 100% laid back, calmly narrated what he needed to do. He was a good listener, also kept calm, seems to have a decent intuitive feel for it and nothing terrible happened.
I grilled a rack of lamb on Saturday-seasoned with a little powdered Rosemary, garlic and salt. Mrs. LDS made ribs today. So, there's been a lot of meat-on-the-bone action this holiday in Larry David Syndromeville.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 6:23 PM on May 29, 2023 [2 favorites]

I spent this afternoon in the sunroom, hanging out with Menace and Mayhem, watching Paul Feig movies and building LEGO. It was bliss.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 6:23 PM on May 29, 2023 [3 favorites]

I sprained my left foot a couple of weeks ago, and it is highly annoying, but not as painful as say a broken bone. But it means I still have to be off my foot. Forgot how much I use my left foot. Tried a knee crutch, but I was like nope, so ordered a knee scooter with all terrain wheels, so I can at least go out in the yard and shop in the store. For groceries, though, it's been curbside pickup which was the one good thing from the pandemic and my daughter has been my helper when my husband at work or asleep (third shift).

Not doing a full garden, since we need to refurbish/realign the raised boxes, but I got a couple of patio type tomato plants (already in a good-sized pot + trellis) for the summer. Our blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, fig and dwarf fruit trees all made it through the winter and doing well. Lost my giant knockout rose, due to overspray from the utility company/neighbor being extra with the herbicide. But she left behind a root clone from where we had her before moving her to the front of the yard near the road, which is doing so well.

We've also been blocking up the foundation (doublewide on piers, but this is more permanent.) They've trenched and poured concrete for the footer already, and will be doing the blocks and a stucco over to make it look much nicer than the fake stone plastic skirting we had. Later this summer will be a bathroom reno but I have everything picked out and ready to order.
posted by tlwright at 6:34 PM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

My hobby project for the Apple II hit a major milestone today! I got a breadboarded version of my Apple II bus -> Ethernet card working in live hardware. It is only fully functional for writes (capturing and forwarding both address and data). Reads only capture the address, and garbage for the data. But that's enough functionality for the actual goal, which is to export enough state to a Raspberry Pi (listening over Ethernet) to render an HDMI video display using the writes done to the memory.

This has managed to be both amazingly easy, while simultaneously being at the very limits of what the hardware I'm using can do. I am using a Raspberry Pico with an integrated W5500 Ethernet-out chip, which is easily capable of reading the bus, but only just barely able to get the data out over Ethernet. It's technically 100 Mbit, but in practice, the W5500 is struggling to push out 16 Mbit due to various hardware limits. I'm having to be fairly creative to fit it all in without falling behind. I'm seeing 14.5Mbit output demand in my initial testing even with the data packing I'm doing, which doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room.
posted by notoriety public at 6:46 PM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

Ribs are a roaring success! Also, I nearly forgot I'd bought some Granny Smith apples but remembered in time to have baked apples along with the ribs, kale and potatoes. My stomach is very happy.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:03 PM on May 29, 2023 [5 favorites]

Speaking of beans, I made "Cowboy Caviar" a couple of days ago, and my husband keeps forgetting the name of the dish, and calls it "Cowboy Balls." So, yeah, we had delicious cowboy balls and roasted pork. (And speaking of my husband, his latest tests came back with an A+ from his oncologist, so I'm happy. ☀️)
posted by taz at 8:08 PM on May 29, 2023 [14 favorites]

Elkvelvet, right there with you in those feelings. Adding to them tonight is the fact that I was an election worker today and busted my ass for 14.5 hours to make sure everyone who showed up at the polling station had the opportunity to vote - solving Problems with identification, etc - and then doing the count with 11 other people who were all working as hard and as fast as possible while maintaining the integrity of the process…and now my social media feed is full of people complaining about how slow the results are. So I’m just kind of done with humanity for the day, and probably with the province tomorrow.
posted by nubs at 10:00 PM on May 29, 2023 [7 favorites]

I bet the Wicked Witch of the West never dreamed of being a mermaid.
posted by Literaryhero at 10:38 PM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Nubs, thank you for working the polls today! Hard to compete with instant gratification culture, but know that many of us appreciate what you do. I hope you feel better after some rest and maybe enjoy some free ice cream tomorrow.
posted by jknx at 10:42 PM on May 29, 2023 [1 favorite]

Is this the place to lash out in frustration that I live in Alberta? Asking for all my friends.
posted by piyushnz at 11:01 PM on May 29, 2023 [4 favorites]

The Wicked Witch of the West, dreaming of being a mermaid: "I'm smelting!!!!"
posted by taz at 1:47 AM on May 30, 2023 [4 favorites]

Pulled pork worked!

It was a simple enough recipe - you chop up an onion and throw it into the bottom of a slow cooker, sear all the sides of a boneless 4 pound pork shoulder and drop that on top of the onion, and then pour a can of dark soda beverage over all and cook on low for 8 hours. Then scoop out the pork, pour out the liquid, throw the pork back in and shred it, then mix in like a cup of barbecue sauce and serve.

I used Dr. Pepper for the soda in question, and found a homemade barbecue sauce that involved Dr. Pepper as well and made that for it. I historically have not been that into barbecue, but my roommate has - and he gave it high marks. He said literally the only thing he'd have changed is that he'd have used cherry Coke instead of Dr. Pepper. And - I might make this again so I can try. (Although next time I'll make sure I get a boneless pork shoulder, because boning that thing took forever.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:00 AM on May 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

EC, you could use a bone-in pork shoulder in that recipe without boning it first. Once it's done cooking the meat will fall off the bone. I've used boneless and bone-in shoulders interchangeably in a number of pulled pork recipes.
posted by mollweide at 9:02 AM on May 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

you could use a bone-in pork shoulder in that recipe without boning it first.

I figured, but I wasn't sure how to account for any possible changes in cooking time. Is it the same?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:06 AM on May 30, 2023

Is it the same?

Yeah, bone-in/boneless doesn't seem to make any difference in cooking time for long and slow pork shoulder recipes.
posted by mollweide at 11:22 AM on May 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

The only real thing with cooking bone-in pork shoulder is it HAS to be low and slow to break down all the collagen and other connecting tissue to break down. I'm sure you already know that, but I learned the hard way that a butt roast and a shoulder roast do not cook at all the same.
posted by hippybear at 11:41 AM on May 30, 2023

Thanks for the tips! Weight was another thing I think I needed to have hands-on experience to account for (the 4 pound pork shoulder went down to being 2.93 pounds after I cut the bone out, so I'm going to use the rule of thumb that the bone adds about a pound of weight in future).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:06 PM on May 30, 2023

Oh - and I'll probably just throw the bone in a pot with some celery tops and spare onion and make a stock out of it at some point this week; I'm already planning to do the same with some shrimp shells from another recipe this weekend.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:08 PM on May 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'll probably just throw the bone in a pot with some celery tops and spare onion and make a stock out of it at some point this week

Split Pea Soup is in your near future. Crystal ball now grows hazy.
posted by hippybear at 1:59 PM on May 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

"I see...in the near future...someone reaching for the Windex..."
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:59 PM on May 30, 2023

I did not, in fact, lose my phone today; I left it at home. Also, BJs had quite nice tomato and flower seedlings.
posted by theora55 at 3:02 PM on May 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

Summer finally deigned to arrive here and it's lovely. A bit of music, a bit of Zelda, and a film or two.

I've been working my way through Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System I got at the end of last month.

I hadn't played the original and I was pleasantly surprised how playable the Sega Ages version was - that one is a bit more generous with rewards.
posted by ersatz at 1:02 AM on May 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

I experienced a minor loss today. I have a friend visiting later and we're going to have lunch. In anticipation of his visit I moved the C64 out of the way to make room for the Amiga. The C64 had suddenly failed after working quite well, as the old Micron 4164 memory chips are known for just up and dying for no reason. Anyway, I swapped around some monitors to put the right one on the Amiga, and it fired right up. Yay!

Except I needed to twiddle the "V.Size" video adjustment in the back. I'd been using this monitor just yesterday but with a different computer, and the picture was different. So I go look back there and the little pot that you have to twiddle with a screwdriver poked into a hole is at a funny angle. I get a screwdriver in there and the pot just... plops over into the guts of the monitor.

Well, okay, fine, I can live with the top of the picture cut off. I turn everything on and... everything is quite dim. I've made the guts of my favorite CRT monitor very sad, and now I can't show my friend who shares my fond Amiga memories my super-kitted-out setup. Amigas can't really be used with most monitors so it's out of commission for the foreseeable future.

Time to find a TV repairman. I could maybe manage the repair myself, but I'd rather someone more qualified do it.

In better news, though, my M2 Macbook Air is on its way! Small Dog had an open box deal, saved me $250.
posted by majick at 7:39 AM on May 31, 2023

I ordered a used M1 Mac Mini off eBay to replace an old intel MacBook Pro, and the seller plopped the label on the wrong box—I received a very lovely MacBook Pro with twice the memory, twice the storage, and an M1 Pro chip. The laptop was easily worth 3 times what I paid for the Mini.

I dropped the seller a note and got the Mac Mini the next day. The laptop return ended back on her welcome mat a few days later.

I would like to speak to Management about this. I do not appreciate having moral dilemmas dropped on my head.
posted by Wilbefort at 11:14 AM on May 31, 2023 [6 favorites]

Good on you Wilbefort, that's being a standup human being - though I empathize, I too would have a hard time with that dilemma.
posted by nubs at 2:58 PM on May 31, 2023

If it had been Best Buy making that error, I wouldn't have batted an eye about keeping it, TBH.
posted by hippybear at 3:46 PM on May 31, 2023

Large corporate entities making mistakes in the customer's favor is a small righting of the cosmic scales of justice; another person making it is a reason to be kind.
posted by nubs at 5:14 PM on May 31, 2023 [4 favorites]

My point, exactly.
posted by hippybear at 7:05 PM on May 31, 2023

[Although how many sellers on eBay are really just ghost kitchens for bigger sellers is something that has not yet been investigated, I think.]
posted by hippybear at 7:06 PM on May 31, 2023

Speaking of ebay - this is a thing that happened to me three times last week in the world of online shopping (ebay AND Etsy, to be accurate).

I was looking for a summerweight bathrobe; the problem is that most of the stuff you can find is short, and I wanted something long, and in cotton. When it comes to clothes I can sometimes be weirdly specific, and invariably the things I'm specific about aren't in the regular shops around me. So - ebay it was. I browsed what they had, saw something pretty and in my budget and took the plunge. That was three weeks ago.

....After two weeks I saw that the order still had not shipped. I opened a complaint with ebay to start an investigation, and then instead gave Etsy a try. Saw something even cheaper, and ordered it. And while I was at it - I saw a cute French market-bag style straw bag, also for a modest price, and treated myself to that too.

And then a couple days later I got notifications that the shipping process had started on all three items - the original ebay order, and the two Etsy orders. But there was one teeny, tiny eensy problem with all three - the same problem.

....They were all from overseas merchants, a fact that was not made clear to me at the time of purchase. The robes are each coming from India, and the bag is coming from Morocco.

They all look like they're from small cottage-business type shops instead of being Alibaba knockoffs or something, so I'm okay with that. But - at the very least, I'd like to have known in advance that my stuff wasn't coming from someone's garage in Sandusky or whatever. And so it's been nearly a month and I still don't have the damn summerweight bathrobe I wanted, but ebay won't do anything for another month because the original item is still making its way through the shipping system (last I checked it was somewhere in Delhi) and I'm still within a reasonable window for the Etsy stuff.

I'm just venting, still.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:21 AM on June 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

I was this many days old when I learned the nearly-defunct steakhouse chain Bonanza/Ponderosa is so named because it was founded by Dan Blocker, who played Hoss on the 1959-1973 tv western known as Bonanza or Ponderosa.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:41 AM on June 4, 2023 [4 favorites]

The good news - my bathrobe packages finally both arrived this Saturday.

The angrymaking news - one of the packages actually did NOT contain a bathrobe - it contained three tattered scraps of random fabric, which wouldn't even be enough quantity to make a bathrobe if you put them all together.

Ebay has already responded to my complaint and given me a refund, and I posted photos on the review page because SERIOUSLY.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:13 AM on June 4, 2023 [2 favorites]