Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work. “Have you included a backup and recovery plan for this?”

A micro-advantage of working at a grad school with lots of international students: the dining hall has nonAmerican standard to-go packets, like Tajin Clasico and Sriracha!

I hope I have now run thru this winter’s utility issues: last wk was a public main water break; today I was smelling gas at my outside meter. Fortunately, both were quickly/easily resolved - there was a loose screw on the (2-yr-old) meter. If electricity is next I have various batteries charged.

While it's been nice to have reliable snow removal, the bill for the past weekend was too much ($750 for an alleged 23", though published reports are only 15") - my neighbors have offered to do it, so I canceled the pricy service.

Somehow in the past few days I have had the mental spoons to cook several casseroles, and yesterday acquired 4 2-cup silicone squares for freezing them into individual servings rather than increase my # of glass containers. After dividing & freezing this I’ll have 13 servings of 4 different meals!

I didn’t stock up on water before the incoming storm bc I have never had a freezing pipe problem - but didn’t take into account the possibility of the town pipes breaking! Neighbors grabbed me some gallons, water is again flowing so won’t need to melt incoming snow to flush ;-)

One unexpected good side effect of clearing out all the old spices is that the compost bin still smells pleasant after pickup!

@musicologyduck.bsky.social you are not just a meme, you are now allegorical.

Work announced a new free health benefit: 9amHealth. It seems to be a health coaching service for hi BP/cholesterol/H1C/obesity. Searches seem to show Amazon offers to their employees. I signed up to check out - they immediately sent a Quest blood panel order & said a cellular scale is coming 1/

This is my regular reminded that if your clothes are full of tear gas and/or pepper spray, air them for a day if at all possible and then wash them twice ON COLD. If you come home and throw them in on hot right away you will kinda gas your laundry room. <3 #Minneapolis #StPaul #FuckICE

I was getting hung up on trying to sort out my wife’s bedroom (despite knowing logically she won’t ever need many of the clothes), so instead I started tackling her spice rack - most of which had expired 2020 abd before - newest expired 2023. Penzey’s has a gift card deal this weekend to start over.

The @americanredcross.bsky.social donation points redemption store opened this morning, and has apparently overwhelmed their servers with the traffic - app keeps saying "technical difficulties".

Cats are ensuring I take it easy after platelet/plasma donation.

My cat is getting texts now, for a Rx of the drug I decided against taking for osteoporosis - she's getting it to lower the calcium in her blood. And Wegmans had the best GoodRx price.

Pre-orders for the VALENTINE'S DAY KOBOLD HEART HOARDS are OPEN!! It's $25 for 10 hearts from my Big Heart Stash that I've been making for the past few weeks with various other goodies available as add-ons. I'm going to talk a little bit about the project in thread. nora.jewelry/products/kob...

Appreciate this article noting that the instrument here (played by Sarah Goldstone) is something called an Omnichord and it's the most baller 1980s thing I've ever seen

Either this year will be really good or I won’t need to mow.

The good news is I’m getting $480 refund from the vet. The bad news is it’s to make up for needing to do a THIRD fasting blood draw on Zoe bc their lab partner has again mishandled the Hypercalcemia of Malignancy panel processing (1st one skipped test, 2nd delayed sending the sample too long).

We’ll see how long this lasts before my legs fall asleep.

Did my first successful platelet donation yesterday. The phlebotomists at the new Bedford MA Red Cross managed to work with my “tiny” veins - earlier attempt in Boston failed bc they poked and just said “no good veins.”

Early for Casey’s annual vet appointment. It only took 15 of the 30 minutes I had allocated to corral him, though I need to move my bed back into place afterwards.

I’m trying to convince my introverted self to accept a few more (than zero) socializing activities. Did drop into a bday party yesterday. There’s an annual Yankee Swap party tonight, but it’s an hour drive & usually packed so would require masking several hours thus I’m waffling.

Unfortunately, due to family medical expenses I can't donate this time, but maybe you might send a little something to my all ages all levels nonprofit brass band/music school: gofund.me/5281c23bf

Decided to try winter sowing for native plant seeds: plant in transparent containers with drainage in damp soil, put them outside where they get sun, snow, rain to give the seeds that require cold to germinate the right conditions. Wild strawberries, mountain mint, random yard plants.

Got the remaining Folio Society books pending buyers into labelled boxes except for the two oversized ones. Box 6 has some space for any further FS books I encounter as I eventually go through the multiple bookcases and piles that aren’t as easily categorized.

Zoe wonders why the crunchie bowl has disappeared. It’s because the lab screwed up her blood tests so she’s fasting again before another draw today.

Today’s #graciesicecream Advent calendar flavor is especially pretty.

In very important cat news: Babushka who has for years been semi feral (indoors) and only in recent months has started to request pets is right now sitting fully on my lap! She might fall asleep except I need to move one of the crossed legs soon (oh good! She just got off herself)

hi everyone! tomorrow is the cutoff for orders from my shop getting to the USA by Christmas. nora.jewelry shares would be a help!

I am tired of waking up to random school and event shootings, esp. since my university work moved me to a cubicle much closer to the main door with no place to hide or get to the other exit.

Hi everyone! My last shipping day that's guaranteed to get to you by Christmas by USPS is Monday, so I'm going to do a handful of posts with some highlights of what's in stock at nora.jewelry. Links to each product are in the thread.

When apps don’t share information.

@dansinker.com who can pass you this # for @sayswhopodcast.com use?

After trying unsuccessfully for 3 wks to transfer my released AT&T work cell # to a personal acct, I give up (apparently can't happen bc company has an unpaid bill). Waiting for BizOps to generate me a transfer PIN so I can move to another carrier.

Interesting: just got a jury summons, and as usual postponed it to the last available date before Xmas ... BUT the site says that once you reach 70 you may choose not to serve - and my 70th bday is in July, so presumably the next day I can get the date cancelled >;-)

Giving myself a gold star today for actually using 1 of the 2 sweet potatoes bought several weeks ago before it went bad (with thanks that the uninsulated mud room works as a root cellar in colder seasons.)

Today's mystery: what is coming from Turkey via FedEx Intl Express? My pending Etsy order hasn't shipped (& is from NJ). A HC book from a Kickstarter? A gift from a secret admirer?

Oh @rianjohnson.bsky.social played all innocent "I'm not doing a muppet thing with Knives Out" he knew HE KNEW

Given the current economy (esp. food & utility prices 'way up) I can't complain the 2026 rate for my wife's memory care residence is up 8.6% - but that's another $1K/mo so I'm going thru my Patreon & other monthly optional costs to cut as much as possible (cute Zoe just cost $1K for tests).

I've got to admire the tenacity of these folks - I bought one beret from them in the early 2000s so once a year in December they send me a flyer, even unilaterally updating my address when I moved in 2015.

Slowly looking in various storage locations for random items my wife bought in case any are worth selling. The unused fly fishing gear has potential, but wtf do I do w 3 “tactical” green lasers so powerful they can light a match & come w safety key locks to prevent child access?

HELLO IT'S BLACK FRIDAY Instead of a sale this year I'm giving 10% of Black Friday weekend sales to @distributeaid.org for their harm reduction toolkits that provide safe injection supplies to trans people taking hormones. nora.jewelry #bsnm

Just got a message that the CodeRED service many cities use for resident alerts has been compromised by a cyber attack and to change PWs - which would be nice except the login portal is either down or overloaded...

Taking an AWS course - wondering for how much longer this metaphor will be understood.

Reskeet with a time you looked cool

Nora has come up with a great new product: glass wreaths! Not in my budget currently, but if one mysteriously arrived at my door I wouldn’t say no. Also, some of the $ is going to a harm reduction program.

I went to look up some information on an old version of a website and found this:

An acquaintance’s cat just had a horrible accident & has been successfully treated at MSPCA Angell, but at a cost of $10K. Please consider a small donation if you can. spot.fund/xhrd8mhdc

An acquaintance’s cat just had a horrible accident & has been successfully treated at MSPCA Angell, but at a cost of $10K. Please consider a small donation if you can. spot.fund/xhrd8mhdc

Nice! Latest DEXA scan shows I have regained some bone density since stopping the aromatase inhibitor in March 2024 after taking it for 7 yrs post-major chemo & radiation. That's incentive to get back to rucking, which dropped off dealing with family medical issues this summer.