Today in operation minor window insulation efforts, the laundry room now has a proper curtain rod for the curtains I sewed a few years back _and_ has a tension fit cellular shade. Perhaps it will get less toasty this summer. (The wind faces approximately East).

Whooo the foxy friend was patrolling the veggie garden for us again last night around 3am!

Nothing like writing up code to answer the question 'what continent was HST over when Vantor's Legion took that image' to get me swearing about the times pandas doesn't use strftime formatting conventions for time (srsly date_range function, what the actual bleep?!?)

Things to share: there are cellular shades you can buy that are tension fit instead of drilled into the window frames. And they even come in blackout shade options and dual bottom and top lift options. (I purchased them for two of our three windows that lacked them.)

Informed delivery ia telling me I'm getting a letter about a 2025 data breach at a university I only applied to for grad school in 2002. Why in the hell would Columbia be digitally maintaining that data for over two decades?

Pocket friends: pretend you are moi and might need a side for pork belly banh mis in the meal planning. What side would you do and why? (I am stuck on that night of meal planning)

Oh, that's an emergency text alert to get on the county blaster: "If you are missing a three year old male child..." with details about which county PD office is entertaining said kiddo.

Sunset tonight is very crepuscular.

Just watched a postie go by being followed by another postie with a notebook and a stopwatch. I think they complained they hadn't been given long enough to do this route as almost all of it is on foot.

Guess what has started blooming a good two weeks early? 🌱

Oof, meal planning when the weather keeps doing oscillations between cozy snuggly meals vs you do not want to cook where it heats the house, nor do you want to wear (American) pants is some shit. Brought to you by meal planning for next week.

Dear PhD institution: no I am not giving you money and emails begging for money after calling didn't work does not amuse me.

I am officially Freya's least favorite human as I shot dewormer eight to the back of her mouth with very little warning. This is the outdoor version of getting the butt.

Unlike everyone else I'm not celebrating until enough early votes are counted that the spread plus whatever early votes remaining will not matter.

Things you find yourself saying on an election: "wait, the end of the dingle swung to yes?" (The dingle is Virgina section of the Eastern shore. The end of the dingle is Northampton County)

Tonight in a freezer/pantry dinner: tostones (freezer) with coconut jerk shrimp (coconut milk & jerk seasoning = pantry, shrimp = freezer) with a pineapple salsa (pineapple =frozen, onion = pantry staple, then 1/3 of jalapeno, v small handful cilantro, few baby tomatoes from counter stash)

*sigh* well now I can call the dog 'Wormy' as a nickname. At least the vet is already starting a claim with her monthly meds manufacturer to cover the test and treatment drugs.

At the Summit Elementary precinct in Charlottesville Virginia I just voted and there were around 435 ballots total in the two machines.

Some days the garden camera sends amazing alerts like this:

Keeping all your old glasses for...awhile... means that you realize the glasses you bought as 'computer glasses' 9 years ago are right in line with your current reading glasses end of a progressive prescription and maybe you should just rock many mono vision options/frames.

Tonight's "what do I have in a freezer or the pantry to use?' turned into air fried chicken fried steak (no gravy b/c gravy texture is not for me), mashed potatoes and green beans with almonds. Surprisingly it turned out damn good.

Also....FML, I have so many baby peaches to strip off this damn tree. 🌱

Sigh, much as I wanted to paint the whole fence turquoise, white was probably the correct backdrop for the street side roses.

My 80s American child self has gone straight to horrifying the British spouse tonigh with our starch to go with a roasted chicken and a beet, mint, and feta salad: the homemade version of Rice-a-roni.

And then in awkward things I did today: went thru about 3 years of gas receipts in my car and scribbled them all down in my car notebook. I obviously don't drive as much post-2020.

So....pretty sure peony season at our house is going to be badonkadonk because I already had to tie them up. 🌱

Did I buy myself the pretty purple sparkle Yeti that was on discount so I hydrate more when gardening? Yes. Yes I did.

Princess WoofWoof appreciates having fenced in yard because now she can lounge with stick.

Well I have now had someone send me something AI generated related to my hobby (yes it's gardening) and I just want to scream that the thing makes no sense at all.

Also y'all, last night I had the weirdest dreams. Like that my plant starting trays were infested with very very mini baby alligators....

Omg it is so nice and brisk and drizzly outside right now.

Oh yay, I'm hearing a quick spurt of sky dribbles!

Oops I searched and discovered the observatory nearby spouse was just at is in range for chokecherries. And I haven't seen them since grad school where I found them in St Paul, and I'm missing chokecherry jelly (as a kid I always had to pick them in the backyard if I wanted jelly).

Me looking up some canning instructions where it refers to wax sealing as something your grandma did: um fuck. I remember wax sealing stuff we made as a kid, so...in the 90s. Does that mean I'm old? 😬

Heads up to Charlottesville folks that may not have plans for tonight!

Sigh, the Westerplatte clematis does not appreciate that I gave it a new trellis and just decided to ramble over towards the steel heron sculpture.

After this week the temptation to get my hair chopped into a bob with an undercut this summer is high, I am not a fan of the moist stickiness on my neck.

This may be the saddest wintered over beet harvest ever but...we have enough for beet salad tomorrow! 🌱

Blocking and reporting spam political texts at least once an hour is too fucking much.

This morning I : did a bunch of weeding, oversowed lettuce, beets, and chard and now I've divided some more tomato seedlings into their own pots. And the heat + humidity combo is kicking my booty.

Well I looked up the court records for the high speed chase man from yesterday and hoo boy, so many past charges including past eluding the police ones. Holy damn.

So it was Virginia State Police who in Charlottesvile narrowly missed hitting a train on Buckingham Branch at Carlton Rd with the high speed chase today. Who's gonna submit the FOIA for the dahcam?

Also: Charlottesville folks, Anti Porchella is happening in my neighborhood as per the flyers.

Yay, local Mexican joint got rid of their metal chairs that basically no ones booty could be comfy in and got nice padded chairs.

So for a truck that did a high speed chase and almost hit a train I expected it to look worse than this.

Oh, yes, so I was right the manhunt is...literally right behind us.

And now we have what sounded like a high speed cop chase just go past the house 😬 Not a quiet day in Cville.

Wooo over 2 hrs later and the disabled semi in the traffic lane next to my house is finally cleared.

First rose bloom of the year is.....Duke of Edinburgh! 🌱

Oh yay, walking the dog is so fun when dudes in their 20s driving by make loud vomitting noises before laughing their assess off as they drive away 🙄 Those boys just gotta keep fat women in their place which is apparently locked in a basement since you can't even be out exercising.