Ohhhhh yeah, now I remember why I bailed on WooCommerce: it was a choice between paying for $1k-2K PER YEAR of plugins, or trying to keep up on updating them directly from Github. I'm just gonna embed Payhip I guess. 😩

Gritty says it's cold at the library.

Oh, right, or finish the samples for the Adventurers Pack, I keep forgetting about it. I made the bunting/banner versions of them (in XXL; pen for scale) and then took a break for a knee replacement. Not sure the rust monster is gonna work, I might tag in a different critter.

I don't want to jump to conclusions but it appears something may have gone awry in the XML encoding/decoding here

The perfect Christmas ornament doesn't ex-

When we moved, we put a lot of lawn tools in the garage trash can, and somehow they went missing... not sure if someone mistook it for trash(?!) and didn't load it on a truck or what. I'm still regretting the loss of Dad's pitchfork, because I feel like at some point we'll need them. And torches.

Hands Reaching Up From Hell, Wat Rong Khun Temple, by Chalermchai Kositpipat, 1997

I am a Midwestern cinnamon bun and also autistic which has been kind of hilarious (and, I guess, money-saving) when it comes to the casual hustle and graft here in Jersey: our building inspector went oh yeah you were supposed to have the foundation signed off on before putting up the garage, even

If you pay close attention you can spot the exact second in which my spouse became a fully-assimilated New Jerseyan.

Spouse just learned about the chicken pox/shingles connection today and I don't want to say he's one of the *lucky* 10,000 today, but xkcd.com/1053/

Someone (with quotes/replies off) said "not getting your phone to work is a staple of the modern anxiety dream" and I realized I never have a phone in dreams despite it being my constant auxiliary brain. Not getting my car to work? Forgetting my mask? Losing track of the person I'm with? Sure. 🤷

In case you have been annoyed by the string of chipper "knee recovery is going so great!" posts from me lately, fear not: the weather has CHANGED and I have returned to my stiff-legged zombie stagger. 🌨️🧟🌨️

Mostly, having all the keywords I can think of muted has spared me the need to unfollow anybody under my "Zero Tolerance For Spicy Autocomplete, No, Not Even Ironically" policy, but today one of my (non-mutual) follows got the boot. "I'll just check to see what lies it tells"? RULE OF GOATS, FOLKS!

Just told the family Discord that I had changed my mind about setting up a Christmas *tree* and BK pointed out we didn't have enough space and I admitted ours would have to be a Godzooky and I assume there was some frantic duckducking on the younger generation's part.

Compliments of the season to my favourite mall Christmas decoration.

Shopify: hosts Nazi stores Gumroad: owner joined Doge Payhip: has a giant header with the typo "Hastle-free" on its front page I should just upgrade my Hetznode and run Woo, I guess

Ooh, I want to go to there. 🧶

Got my alternate PT guy (who hasn't done the stretching-out for me in a couple weeks) to raise his eyebrows and do the little "impressive" nod when he saw how far he could bend my new knee. yesssssss

At least my embroidery account is laser-focused. (also "least" appears on both accounts' word clouds and I just realized why 💀)

LEAST THOSE JERSEY FOLKS APPARENTLY REMEMBER (via anisota.net/harvest )

That is a pretty good way to walk the line between "not normalizing" while also "not dismissing." A lot of Post and Times headlines/sentences would have benefitted from a good "if Trump is taken seriously."

Not done with physical therapy on the right for a few more weeks, already starting the pre-flight checks for the left, whee

“Have Yourself A Merriam Little Christmas” Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.

PhilaPort: we're building a cruise ship port and have a contract with a cruise line already! Me: And there's gonna be a norovirus vaccine soon(ish), we could go on cruises so conveniently! Also me: *remembers how much I hate "too many people situations"* ... wait.

"Revolution Taco to close in Rittenhouse, replaced by a Vietnamese Cajun restaurant" -- okay that's a fusion I have never heard of before. (The owner is from a town in Louisiana that had a large Vietnamese population. TIL.)

I am seeing the end of physical therapy (doc said "whenever your therapist thinks you can do it at home") and today is my first "I don't wanna" day instead of a "let's do this!" day.

Wildlife tracking! I'm reposting things I made this past year. If you look closely at the deer tracks you'll see I added the hint that they're double registering (hind foot is stepping into the same spot as front foot).

The Roundworld year for 2026 shall be known as [FX Drum Roll] : The Year of the Curious Squid. Artwork by Discworld artist Paul Kidby.

It is cold and rainy and windy and I had put the turkey carcass in the instant pot, so it was time for chicken and noodles.

I guess Buy Nothing Day has kind of outlived its usefulness: I have observed it mostly because people should get the Friday after Thanksgiving off, and if they don't they should at least not have to deal with Black Friday retail nightmares and I think the latter has mostly happened?

Look at this dog's ears. LOOK AT THEM (darth is hibernating, we all gotta do our bit)

Introduce yourself with five animals you've seen in the wild: Carolina anole(s) Bottlenose dolphin Groundhog Bald eagle Pronghorn antelope

My "five concerts you've been to more than once" are mostly youth-group Christian bands/singers. Have been to some concerts in adulthood, but nothing that I can think of more than once. Servant David Meece Matthew Ward Glad Michael Iceberg

Gonna tell @jayhawk88.bsky.social 's wife about this great present idea for him. It has the Chiefs logo on it!

The watch that interrupts every PT session with a reminder to get up and be active, just informed me of this when I woke up from an accidental multi hour nap. 🤷

The turkey is just slightly dripping on the oven burner but I cannot get it out and tuck it fully into its pan so it's now a race between the timer and the smoke alarm. 😬

I should go back and find the "wild Thanksgiving family/food stories" thread to add the memory that just popped up uninvited: my mother in law used to make gravy on the stovetop. Gas burner. No big deal, you say, but the part that always set my hair on fire was: in a Corningware casserole dish.

Pretty good conditions for "the fridge is too full, we'll have to set some stuff outside" tomorrow night. (We should not have this situation this year; there's a giant sheet cake for kids' Friendsgiving that will leave in the early evening.)

Tomorrow's plan: spatchcock the currently-brining bird, make a pan of dressing, make baked mac (not one of our usuals but it is Bonus Kid's Thanksgiving fave, can't believe this is our third Thanksgiving with him and only now did he tell me this), make blistered green beans, make gravy.

Me: SO EXCITED that I can drive again, and visit all my favorite stores and stuff Also me: *remembers tomorrow is Thanksgiving and Friday is Buy-Nothing Day* ... well poop.

I am absolutely a Yankee, my family is from PA, but I grew up on Jiffy cornbread and just always assumed the sticky-sweet kind was Southern style but anyway guess who decided to take a shortcut on the dressing this year and has Jersey store bought CAKE, THIS IS CAKE

Post-op results: I am a "superstar" progress-wise, and I got the second knee scheduled for early spring, and most importantly [to spouse who has been filling in for me] I AM CLEARED TO DRIVE. Gonna start with a jaunt to the neighborhood CVS, nothing too wild.

Accidentally double booked PT and my four-week post-op so I bumped PT an hour earlier and now I'm going to the post-op all sweaty. But I did ten minutes on the bike!

There’s no chance there is a real person named I Wanna Be Whorin’.

These shoes are the footwear version of those fake sixth fingers people joke about wearing so any picture taken of them can be dismissed as "see, it's clearly a deepfake!"

Achievement get: came up our slightly steep old-house stairs with alternating knees. Still having a little trouble bending enough to step up straight onto the next step, but [most of] the strength to lift my somewhat excessive bulk is back, baby!

LISTEN UP! December 1 is Monday. This means I only have another 6 days to get an advent calendar to you.. Those days include Thanksgiving and a Sunday. I will be doing a post office drop tomorrow! This is your last chance. I can't guarantee it'll get there by Monday, but it could! SquidFacts.net

My only input to the pie discourse is that I don't care for pumpkin pies (or pumpkin in general) but they're easy to make for other people, which makes them superior to cheesecake which I occasionally like. A true French silk pie is incredible though (and will kill you these days I guess).