The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

Brightdreamer

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Hooray for conquered tangles!

And, yeah, those little beads on hair brush ends... definitely worth having. (And worth replacing the brush if they break off.)

And it's Tuesday night. Cleared the fifth ep of Night Sky, and it's finally stopped some of the dancing and is explaining a few things, so it's going better. I still have a feeling it's gonna pull an Outer Range and end without full resolution (expecting a second season that may not happen), but at least people are getting on the same page at last.
 

MaeZe

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I sounded the call to action. Then, I patiently awaited the arrival of my most hated foes. Patient, because I knew that call to action would not be refused.

The child arrived, foes in hand. Or, rather, on head. Tangles. Lots and lots of hair tangles.

A complication arose. The comb, detested by the child, had disappeared. So had the child's brush. The child searched, no luck. My brush, inferior as it was for this particular task, would have to do.

An epic battle ensued. I fought valiantly, attempting to minimize 'friendly fire' shrieks, though some did occur. Slowly, so very slowly, the tangles yielded to my strokes.

I released the child as I emerged victorious, but not unscathed. Finger cramps HURT!
Might I recommend a hair rinse that does a great job disappearing tangles? There are several versions, one you use as conditioner after washing one's hair (my preference) and one that you can spray on dry hair.

I brush my hair in the shower with the conditioner on and remove the tangles. I rinse it off afterward and my hair is still tangle resistant when I get out of the shower.
 

MaeZe

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I get it about kids resistant to changes, but once she experiences the benefit of tangle reducing products she'll come around.
 

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Boo for medical and water woes. And boo for that disappearing brush. There's one in every house. Or there used to be, right before it disappeared...

I have encountered a mystery caterpillar. Well, actually, there's three of them. I have been trying to make this garden butterfly-friendly for years, which involved among others letting nettles run a little more ramptant that I'd like because it's the main food for several large butterflies.

For years this has got not me a single caterpillar, only much and much stinging. So this spring, I yanked most of them out except for a patch at the backend of the garden, much to the relief of my mother. Now fast forward two months and there's a caterpillar pupating at the terrace window. It looks suspiciously like a peacock butterfly caterpillar that lives on nettles, the nettles I removed months before. Another appears a few days later close by and on inspection I find a third crysalis.

I try out a new app for bug-recognition and I get not the peacock butterfly but 100% tortoiseshell, which I have never ever seen in my garden. I would love to have them them but their population is crashing a lot harder than the peacock so what are the odds its the rarer tortoiseshell? But aside from not have nearby nettles anymore, none of the tortoiseshell caterpillar foodplants grow nearby the window either. So where do these three caterpillars come from? Given their proximity to one another, they most come from the same eggclutch.

It's a mystery.

...I'm going to have to wait until the bloody things emerge, won't I?
 

Brigid Barry

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Boo for medical and water woes. And boo for that disappearing brush. There's one in every house. Or there used to be, right before it disappeared...

I have encountered a mystery caterpillar. Well, actually, there's three of them. I have been trying to make this garden butterfly-friendly for years, which involved among others letting nettles run a little more ramptant that I'd like because it's the main food for several large butterflies.

For years this has got not me a single caterpillar, only much and much stinging. So this spring, I yanked most of them out except for a patch at the backend of the garden, much to the relief of my mother. Now fast forward two months and there's a caterpillar pupating at the terrace window. It looks suspiciously like a peacock butterfly caterpillar that lives on nettles, the nettles I removed months before. Another appears a few days later close by and on inspection I find a third crysalis.

I try out a new app for bug-recognition and I get not the peacock butterfly but 100% tortoiseshell, which I have never ever seen in my garden. I would love to have them them but their population is crashing a lot harder than the peacock so what are the odds its the rarer tortoiseshell? But aside from not have nearby nettles anymore, none of the tortoiseshell caterpillar foodplants grow nearby the window either. So where do these three caterpillars come from? Given their proximity to one another, they most come from the same eggclutch.

It's a mystery.

...I'm going to have to wait until the bloody things emerge, won't I?
I think you will, alas! I assume you have harness the power of the Google to look up the two chrysalis types to identify?

My yard, to the standard American eye, looks like an eyesore. We have some yellow flowering weed or other for the bees, and let the dandelions grow for the same reason. We have milkweed also popping up all over the yard for the endangered monarch butterflies. The goldenrod that my husband is horribly allergic to is also food for them so it stays, too.

The moral of this tale, is that you are not alone!
 
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Brigid Barry

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Rant-like Update: The neurosurgeon disregarded everything that didn't mesh with his decision that I have "an atypical presentation of carpal tunnel", and refused to entertain the idea of an atypical presentation of whatever is going on with my neck. Right sided deformity = right sided symptoms, no exceptions. He "doesn't want anyone to go away unhappy" and suggested sending me out for a nerve study
where they stick pins into the muscles of your hands and run electricity through the pins
to test for carpal tunnel and I said no, because, plot twist, I already know I have mild carpal tunnel. I've had it for 17 years. I don't have an issue with it day to day, I also know what triggers it. Fun fact, when my hands go numb and I change the hand position, it goes away. Can we pretend, for one second, that I did my own unofficial troubleshooting to know that this isn't carpal tunnel? No. Oh, yeah, I'm a woman, sorry.

As I was typing this, the original ortho doctor that sent me to this neurosurgeon called. The neurosurgeon texted him (?) and was adamant that it's carpal tunnel because he can't see beyond "right side = right sided symptoms" and he's afraid of liability if he operates and it doesn't fix the problem (?). Ortho Guy is NOT happy with that diagnosis because of the "significant" deformity in my spine, so he's referring me to someone he knows personally. Bonus: he found my nerve test results from 2017 and he's not going to make me go through it again unless the new neurosurgical person has a question.

So good news, not going to sit at home and wait until it's so degenerated that I'm paralyzed to get a second opinion, because Ortho Guy is being proactive.
 

Brightdreamer

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Hooray for mystery chrysalises and proactive ortho guys!

Thursday afternoon, and chilling a bit before writing up a book review.

Work existed. Gonna really suck going into the post holiday surge next week at bare minimum staffing. (And the person leaving showed up late. I don't know why that irritated me, but it did. I mean, yeah, I get it, she owes the job nothing, but... she knows full well where her absence leaves us, and she can't be bothered to show up on time one last time?)

Hit Costco afterward, which was expensive but netted me some dinner options. (Was also evil and got a couple book box sets which I need like a hole in the head.) Will still have to hit a store tomorrow, though; they didn't carry Rice Chex or normal-sized bacon bits or other things I needed.

Sibling's working extra hours today, which comes just as her aging laptop decided to blue-screen it. (It came back to life, but is clearly on its last legs.) So the extra income will come in quite handy. It's true, what they say - when God crashes a Windows, he opens a door...
 
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Brightdreamer

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Boo for disappearing butterflies!

And Thursday evening. The cloud cover has finally given into active rain.

Dinner was scrounge-your-own-leftovers night.

Cleared another episode of Night Sky. Might try to clear another one, which would leave only one to finish off tomorrow. Like Outer Range, a lot of my ultimate reaction will depend on how they leave things after the eighth and last ep of the season(?), but right now it's in a similar "decent and interesting and a little different, but not truly outstanding or utterly gripping" area.
 

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Oooh, I reckon I need to borrow the scrounge your own meal design. We call it grazing, but it inevitably involves me chopping, slicing, and dicing unheated dinner stuff. Why me?
 
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I think you will, alas! I assume you have harness the power of the Google to look up the two chrysalis types to identify?
Unfortunately a crysalis is even harder to identify than a caterpillar. I was lucky to see and photograph the caterpillar before it pupated.

I looked it up it's going to be two to three weeks. *impatient*

My yard, to the standard American eye, looks like an eyesore. We have some yellow flowering weed or other for the bees, and let the dandelions grow for the same reason. We have milkweed also popping up all over the yard for the endangered monarch butterflies. The goldenrod that my husband is horribly allergic to is also food for them so it stays, too.

The moral of this tale, is that you are not alone!
It's a good thing then, that butterflies will see your garden differently. ;) It must be a haven.

But letting something stand to which one is allergic for the butterflies is pretty hardcore. :e2chain:I do not know whether I would go as far. Hayfever is a [beep].

So good news, not going to sit at home and wait until it's so degenerated that I'm paralyzed to get a second opinion, because Ortho Guy is being proactive.
:Wha:

A good thing Ortho Guy is looking out for you!

Frustrating but it sounds like an overall positive outcome for now, Brigid.

I'm excited to hear about these mystery butterflies, Friendly Frog!

This was in the BBC news yesterday:

The butterflies we may never see again in Britain​

Yeah, I've read it. A couple are specialist so they need their very specific habitat. But even the Swallowtail is hard to imagine. :e2cry:
 

owlion

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So good news, not going to sit at home and wait until it's so degenerated that I'm paralyzed to get a second opinion, because Ortho Guy is being proactive.
I'm really glad at least Ortho Guy is being proactive and actually helpful, but sorry you had to go through being misdiagnosed and fobbed off. I hope they find a good treatment asap!

I had a call with the doctor earlier this week, after having been to the physio who was concerned about the issues with my nerves. She was very unhelpful (and gave me flashbacks to when I was trying to get someone to look into CFS for me) but finally deigned to let me get some blood tests done to check for things like inflammation. I decided to book an appointment with another doctor to discuss results because this one sounded extremely done with me and it was a bit depressing to deal with.

...I'm going to have to wait until the bloody things emerge, won't I?
That's exciting! It's great being able to watch natural phenomena happening in real time :D I haven't had the chance to watch butterflies much, but I twice got to watch chicks fledge (pigeons who had nested weirdly low in a nearby tree and swallows who nested in the bicycle parking area of my apartment block in Japan). It's always great to see them make it!
 

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Morning, Cantina. Long week. Tired, emotionally and physically. Had to be out literally all day yesterday, which was not my personal preference, but multiple doc appointments had to be gone to and groceries had to be shopped. At least we get to stay home today and rest. We may get some storms later, which would be fine because we need the rain.

The plumber *was* coming in the afternoon since the bedroom bathroom sink is still trickling and the hall bathroom sink is not running fully either. But then he rescheduled due to a "family emergency." So. Since the kitchen sink and shower are running just fine, we're pretty sure the other two sinks are just an issue of clogged aerators after the stupid hose explosion that caused all that sediment to get built up. The options are, deal with trickling water for another week until the plumber can bring the stupid specialty tool to get the stupid aerator off, or see if we can get the stupid tool for ourselves and never have to call him for this again. Hmm. I foresee a trip to Home Depot in the near future.

Not sure what I feel like doing today. I might take a look at another possible transcription/captioning site. The first one I tried hasn't ever gotten back to me, and I found on the internet that, since the pandemic started, they can take upwards of 6 months to respond. I'm sure, like so many other places, it's a combo of being short staffed for obvious reasons, and also an increase in the number of people trying to work from home. Still, when the email they send you after you apply says, "We'll get back to you in a few days" discovering that it's actually 6 months is a smidge annoying. Like, maybe update your information if it's changed that drastically. Anyway, I figure it can't hurt to get another option in the works. Maybe this one will respond faster, or if not, I can at least get the process started now.
 
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Brightdreamer

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Boo for cruddy doctors, plumbing issues, and long days!

Friday morning, slowly assembling self for work, and I have to hit yet another store on the way home (because, as Mom had to have explained to her numerous times, no, Costco does not have everything on my shopping list, no really, I would never use a pound and a half of bacon bits before they went off so I need to go somewhere else). Need to load a new title or two on Overdrive, too. At least I have audibooks to look forward to... whee...
 

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Unfortunately a crysalis is even harder to identify than a caterpillar. I was lucky to see and photograph the caterpillar before it pupated.

I looked it up it's going to be two to three weeks. *impatient*


It's a good thing then, that butterflies will see your garden differently. ;) It must be a haven.

But letting something stand to which one is allergic for the butterflies is pretty hardcore. :e2chain:I do not know whether I would go as far. Hayfever is a [beep].
I am hardcore...and it's my husband with the allergy, and my older daughter. 🤣
 

Brightdreamer

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And it's Friday afternoon.

Work was there.

Shopping was also there.

Need to start pre-heating the oven soonish (chicken alfredo tonight).

Heard back about the aunt's husband. Wound care is actually helping deal with the infected surgical wound, wonder of wonders. Hopefully that can be cleared up before things get worse.

--

And after dinner. About to clear the last ep of Night Sky, relative interference pending, so I can start Stranger Things S4 Part 1 this weekend (again, interference pending). Barring a spectacular finale, I put it in the "good, but won't be upset if there's no second season" category - can't say I regret watching, but can't say I'm exceptionally invested, and I also can't help thinking they could've made better use of their run to create said investment. (Now, Stranger Things, I want to see where they're going...) Again, though, a lot will depend on where things stand after the final ep, here...

ETA - Have seen the final episode of Night Sky. Again, not bad, but I think they spent too long dancing around info that they still didn't totally explain by the end, so there were just a few too many rushed/WTF developments where I just wasn't buyin' it. Some interesting stuff, and it could develop with a second season, but I'd be more interested in a continuation of Outer Range, TBH - and neither had that hook that compels me to watch and rewatch and really have to know what comes next (though Outer Range had more interesting cinematography and something quirky about it that intrigued me more in the long run).
 
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Trying to look at/set up the transcription thing that I mentioned yesterday, and feeling a smidge annoyed that I ended up having to find a youtube walkthrough just to figure out where the right link was to sign up for the thing that's supposed to allow me to sign up for the transcription thing. (Because they couldn't just have the link on their main page, it's under a different page on the website, and you *have* to use the link because apparently, when they said "go sign up for the thing" they actually meant "use our link to go sign up for the thing, because if you just go sign up for the thing, it won't be right even thought we couldn't just put the link on our front page where we literally tell you to go sign up for the thing.") Currently in the "sit and wait for one thing to get approved before being able to move on to the next step" stage. I'm also in the "I haven't gotten one of the essential emails that the tutorial lady said she got upon signing up, so when is that going to come through" stage. And it occurs to me that, because I'm doing this on a holiday weekend, if these things have to be approved by humans instead of computers, I might be waiting until Tuesday or something. Gaaaaah.

ETA: I looked at the Youtube walkthrough lady's channel and discovered that she has many videos about said site and other transcription/captioning sites, because she has actually experience in taking their tests and so on. Learned upon watching an older video that the site I'm currently trying to sign up for has been having issues with actually sending people their log-in info since late 2020. *head explodes* Would have been nice to know that before I spent time trying to figure out the dang thing.
 
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Brightdreamer

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Boo for transcription headaches!

And it's Saturday morning. Trying to psych myself up for the joys of dusting, sweeping, and flipping a mattress. Then I have a little site stuff to do. That's as far as the plan goes so far.

--

And Saturday afternoon. Room tidying dealt with, site stuff done, lunch eaten, some more editing done. (Really should finish that this weekend.)

Was going to lie down for a bit, as I'm feeling the post-lunch crash, but sibling has come upstairs to yammer loudly.
 
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Brightdreamer

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And it's after dinner. (Breakfast for dinner night. Even splurged on waffles. And I tried that bacon-in-the-oven thing and it worked out pretty well.) Transcription probably isn't going to happen because I'm keeping an eye/ear on boiling eggs and relatives are being loud again.

Made some editing progress, at least. Only about 20-odd pages to go, then I plan to do a final quick pass and call it sub-ready.
 
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I've lately been cooking bacon in a pan on the stovetop but first filling the pan with water. By the time the water has boiled off, the bacon will have released enough fat to grease the pan, so the bacon doesn't get all stuck and burnty. Same with sausages.

I once tried putting bacon in the oven, under the broiler, on parchment. (Yes I am this stupid.) Not a good idea! The parchment went up in flames :ROFLMAO:

Another tip for young players: if you're making hard boiled eggs, and you forget to set a timer, and you come back to the stovetop and find the pot of eggs with all the water boiled away, do NOT shriek, grab the pot, set it in the sink, and run cold water into it.

Can y'all guess what happened?
 
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Brightdreamer

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I used foil on a baking sheet, middle rack on 400, round about 15ish? minutes. Didn't seem to spatter as much, but I'm overdue for an oven wipedown so I didn't look too closely...

And I'm winding down the day. Contemplating setting up the foot pedal thingy and watching something or reading before bed, because I blew off exercise today. Not sure if I'm in a Stranger Things mood right now, either... may wait until tomorrow.