I actually have a funny clip of three raccoons on the porch but I can’t get the weakass web gif maker to do what I want it to do.
Looks like there are some fun tricks I can learn with the Adobe apps that a few months ago I swore I was going to learn to live without, but I can’t learn them this afternoon.
So here is a photo from September.
At this rate we’re going to need a velvet rope for this hot spot.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Yes, I know the bar is low but getting my braces off this week was the highlight of my year.
The whole idea that they make my teeth look better is of little consequence. I am so happy those things are off. I complained about them almost every time I ate. They rip up your toothbrush so you need to replace it every month. Flossing is completely unsatisfying. I always felt like I had bad breath. Thrilled to be done.
The before picture is right after I got the top braces on December 17, 2018. I couldn’t find a decent shot of me with the bottom on, too.
The after picture is when I exited the building after getting them removed.
I have eaten caramel, mixed nuts, a wide variety of crunchy things, raw vegetables. I have snacked and not brushed my teeth immediately after.
Tomorrow I get a retainer that I will need to wear full time for 6 months so back to more careful oral care. But probably for the better of none of my pants will fit.
This is not the clearest view but I put it up because if you enlarge the video and watch the little turd on the right, he is pulling off the bottom of the drain spout. Those raccoons throw wild parties. I put it back and they haven’t touched it again.
Before I pulled up the tomatoes I picked as many green tomatoes as I could deal with and lined them up on the windowsill. We’ve had them in our salads this whole time. They don’t taste the greatest but we still like them.
I can’t remember how it came up but I mentioned something about the original The Bad New Bears movie that came out in 1976. Bob spotted it in the TV guide (is it still called that?) set it to tape for the DVR.
It would be difficult to overstate how obsessed I was with this movie. I was the perfect age – right around the same age as those kids. I had a crush on all the boys. I had a girl crush on Tatum O’Neal — that outfit when she goes to the arcade — brilliant. Back in the early days of cable there would be 5 movies on over and over for a month. I watched it a million times when it was on. I had the tie-in novel, too.
It’s hard to know what to say watching it in 2020. My deep inner 13 year old self still loved it. But my adult self was horrified but also laughing my face off. Where were the parents of these kids? Letting them go off and hang out with Walter Matthau, piled into the back of his convertible, cleaning swimming pools, serving him cocktails before he got back behind the wheel to drive them to the ball park. The coach falling down drunk is played for laughs. The entire movie is a phone call to child welfare services.
My favorite moment when I laughed the hardest was at the end when the coach passed out beers to all the players. Inappropriate bits aside, still a classic. Isn’t it the template for all the kid sports movies that came after?
Yesterday we went to pick up our Christmas tree. I went into the shop to look for a bucket to fill with water so we had a place to keep the tree until we got it up.
There was already a bucket of water ready, but also, there was water everywhere like someone had just swabbed the floor with a sopping mop.
What is going on out here? I looked around and then I had a hunch.
Remember during the summer when I posted about my bucket for slow-watering the fig tree?
Bob accidentally picked that bucket first. 😂 “At least we know it works,” he said.
I made my goal by writing 27,040 words words in November. I wrote every day. My lowest day was 535 words. My best day was 1393. Often it was torture but I did it anyway.
The result isn’t pretty but I did get to know the characters and a few surprises came up so I guess it was a worthwhile exercise if my goal is try to get my mojo back.
What next? I keep changing my mind.
I’m going to spend one more weekend on my short story and either finish it or pack it away. Then go back to my longer projects and try to pick one. The possibility of writing another romance is still out there, too.
27040 / 25000 words. 108% done!
It seems like pillowcases come in two sizes. Barely there, so the tip of your ancient pillow sticks out and you’re constantly fussing with it to get your gross pillow carefully concealed.
And child’s sleeping bag so that you have to tuck in this giant end or it flops around and gets tangled up while you’re trying to sleep.
I vaguely recall from last time I was replacing pillows that pillows have also become complicated so I suspect the two are related.
A quick glimpse of no-tail guy at the beginning. These two look very well fed. I think they’ve got a good source somewhere.
I never know what I’m doing when I’m buying lightbulbs now.
I bought some that said “natural light” and they emit a blazing blue light as if from a space ship.
I have more than one light fixture with several bulbs. I never manage to get the bulbs to match. I label the bulbs in the lightbulb area with notes that say, “this is for the bathroom” “these are the ones you hate in the living room.”
But also somehow you can never buy just one bulb. We also have a sort-of nightlight and I used to be able to find a very low wattage for that fixture. If you wake up in the middle of the night you can see enough not to break your neck. But now the lowest wattage I can find, you could still read the side of the cereal box.
Just kidding, I need to be under the space ship light if it’s very small print.
Last night I had a dream that I was with a group–like we were staying in a house together–and they were teasing me because I couldn’t remember what day it was. I finally found my phone and turns out all of us had gotten up at 3:30 in the morning.
Later I dreamed that I missed an important professional Zoom call.
It’s a pretty good representation of where my brain is at right now. I am so worried about forgetting things that I keep jotting little notes to myself. I have so many little notes that I’m overwhelmed. I went through a few and consolidated and then tossed but there’s still underlying concern that I am forgetting something.
Well, like almost everyone, I would have preferred to have a bigger celebration but also trying to keep ourselves and everyone we love healthy.
We did a family zoom call and visited our in-town relatives by standing out in the driveway with masks on.
We ended up with a pretty traditional meal. I tried the NYT buttermilk brine for the turkey breast. We made a green citrus salad which is something I always want but end up running out of steam and/or table space for and usually skip. It was fabulous. Instead of pie I made the NYT ginger-pumpkin sorbet which was wonderful and refreshing after the big meal.
Ready for a couple episodes of The Crown before staggering off to bed.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Smokey morning at Tishawnik.
I don’t think I ever did an update on the new neighbors behind us. We talked to them and they are fine. They were a bit vague about exactly what they plan to do and I’m not sure if that means they are still assessing what they have or they don’t want to tell us.
They demolished the garage which we knew had to happen from the son-in-law. We understand they plan to build an extra mother-in-law apartment and then do some sort of upgrades to the house.
The rental process is on hold – they had such a big response they decided not to deal with it right now. They work like mad over there. I think they’ve shown up every day since they bought it.
Note from Nov 26, 3PM: I scheduled this to post yesterday and just now when I checked to see what happened I find a note “missed schedule.” I thought this was a computer. How does it miss the schedule? It is still scheduled for yesterday. SMH.
This picture is actually from August. I still don’t have all my “photo manipulation” tools on the new machine and I’m almost completely helpless. hehe.
It was dry for a few consecutive days so I moved the camera to the back of the yard by the fence and set the water bucket out again.
The videos were foggy from condensation but clear enough that I could see raccoons stopping by the water bucket at 5 different times.
Every time they stop to look in the bucket, then stir one or both arms in the water, then stick their face in to drink it. It’s like they aren’t happy until one of their dirty feet has been in there.
I moved the camera back under the awning by the house but I left the water bucket out to take care of all their bathing needs.
