The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

TedTheewen

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I'm a mutt and that's enough for me. My ancestors were kicked out of the finest countries of Europe and given how my family on both sides tends to be, I can totally understand. Drunks on one side and humorless hard-asses on the other. I wouldn't want them around, either.

Today is my Friday and it's been a very difficult week. I'm glad it's over. Right now I'm binge-watching the last few episodes of Shadowhunters.

Give what other folks are going through right now, I wish I could share some ice cream with y'all. Ice cream makes everything better.
 

Kjbartolotta

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My mom's side of the family is basically the American version of the Blackadders.
 

MaeZe

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I'm supposed to be descended from Mary Queen of Scots and I always figured it was the typical family rumor. Then I tried to trace her relatives down the line instead of up. Turns out she has something like 20,000 descendants. So it might be true :tongue
 

TedTheewen

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My grandmother used to get drunk and say we were related to Irish royalty. I used to work with a compulsive liar who would string some whoppers together so badly everybody knew he was full of it. I used to tell him I was Irish Royalty and that I was hiding out from the Orangemen in the U.S. but soon I'd be able to go back to my castle.
 

E.F.B.

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Give what other folks are going through right now, I wish I could share some ice cream with y'all. Ice cream makes everything better.
I have leftover ice cream cake from birthday on Sunday, so it's all good.


Re genetics: one of my grandparents said she'd always heard that there was a lady in waiting, apparently Welsh, named Wealthy Ives somewhere in our tree. We haven't had the money or time to research back that far on Ancestry yet, but I hope someday we might get back that far.
 

Brightdreamer

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On ancestry, a relative on my mom's side is obsessed with it, and traced the lineage back to Lady Godiva (yes, the Lady Godiva.) Godiva chocolates have been a family in-joke since then. Mom's side is American mutt. Dad's is almost straight-up German via Russia (there were Germans brought in under Catherine the Great, who got special privileges, including special schools and rights; Dad's great-grandfather emigrated when that all was stripped away, because he didn't want to become Russian - mostly, as I understand, meaning he didn't want to have to serve in the Russian army.)

Basically, I have ancestors on the losing side of most every war.

Tuesday evening, dinner done and dishes (that I found) washed. Probably going to settle in for the evening with some spitball writing and another ep of Altered Carbon. Pretty dark and graphic, but very interesting. I'll probably track down the book it's based on.
 

Kjbartolotta

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My grandmother used to get drunk and say we were related to Irish royalty.

Probably true, considering there were kings, high kings, petty kings, subkings, and local kings at every turn. Must have been one king of every four people back in the day. (gosh, sure hope there are no Celtic Studies experts that can correct me on this)

I know I'm descended from Richard Warren, one of the bankrollers of the Mayflower expedition and an early leader of the colony. My Gma would always brag about it, but we'd never believe her. I also have a relative who came here pre-Revolution when his father died and he stood to gain a fat inheritance. His uncles weren't having it, so they hit him over the head and stuffed him in a leather sack to be shipped to America. I don't know much after that, but apparently he fought for independence and had copious offspring.
 
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JJ Litke

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I hereby protest gawd-damn websites that force me to change my password. :rant:

Oh man I hate that. So much of password requirements are based on flat wrong ideas about what makes passwords secure. It’s infuriating.
 

Friendly Frog

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So, for the better part of two weeks I have been putting oak saplings in my room every night and outside everyday. How is this my life? I tell you why, it's that bloody mouse.

At least, I assume it's a mouse. It used to be a mouse, but then I trapped the little bugger and we had a little quiet for a while. Anyway, before I start suspecting ghost mice lemme start at the beginning.

So, there are a lot of mature native oaks around our garden. With wind, long branches and nut-crazy squirrels (although, frankly, is there any other kind?) our garden each years bursts with young oak saplings. This being a garden, not the ideal place for a forest, we pot every one up and ship them to a reclaimed fir plantation that is being replanted with natives. Since young oaks are so slooooow growers and fragile we lose a lot and tend to pot up some acorns too for insurance. Moar trees, never a bad thing.

We used to put the seedlings up on the balcony, until.. the mouse. It climbed up to the balcony (!) every night and decimated our potted acorns. I eventually had to use lethal force. Not my favourite moment in essentially a wildlife garden, but come on, trying to breed trees here on my effin' balcony! The garden is still full of acorns, go eat them there. Seriously, this mouse ignored the front garden brimming with acorns, to come up and raid my balcony.

I made the mistake of asuming since I had trapped the mouse any seedlings would be safe this year. The bloody rodent raided all my beech pots and two of my oak pots in one single night before I managed to get the rest into Plantcatraz. (Plantcatraz are plant trays with fitted metal wire frames over them, we started using them before we cought our previous balcony brigand.)

And now the new bugger has gone and raided Plantcatraz! I don't know how he did it. I have one batch of oak seedlings left this year. So in and out they go every night. Until they're strong enough to survive without the acorns. And that's how this is my life.

Bloody rodent.

Gardening always finds muscles you forgot about.
QFT

Frog - Best of luck on being home alone! (And fingers crossed no bumbling burglars attack... ;) )
O.O

Well, I wasn't worried before...

Excuse while I go and rube-goldberg-trap the hell out of my house.

ION, I may be booking a last minute flight to France for a work thing next month? My team has been advised that a thing we submitted for an award within our broader company has made it to the semi-finalist stage, and we'll know by later next week if we're one of the finalists. Which means "surprise, FRANCE!" I'm not complaining. Just...my team member and I would really like to know so we could plan our lives for that week.
Hey, you'll be on the same continent!

In extended family news, the care center my uncle was at has contacted social security, claimed they got word that uncle was unable to take care of his own finances and therefore his social security check should come straight to the care center and OH MY WORD THAT WAS SUCH A BALD-FACED LIE!!!!!!!:rant::rant::rant: Dad has given aunt and uncle instructions on how to deal with that and otherwise tell the care center to take a long walk off a short pier. I just... How on earth did the care center think they could get away with that??? I can't even. I CANNOT EVEN.:gaah:gaah:gaah
:Wha:

I CANNOT EVEN seems about right.

I hope you reported them. You can bet they'll be trying that fraud with other people too, who may not have family to defend them.

Hello everyone!
I have moved! And still alive!

Cats did well. [...]
Yeay!

Also, :hi:.

I hereby protest gawd-damn websites that force me to change my password. :rant:
IKR? And then kindly storing my previous passwords, so they can helpfully tell me when I'm trying to use one I have used before. Because seriously, the knowledge of you are storing all my old passwords in one place where hackers can get to them more easily makes me feel so much safer indeed!

Oh man I hate that. So much of password requirements are based on flat wrong ideas about what makes passwords secure. It’s infuriating.
Yes, like the only thing that causes hackers to get them must be because you didn't use symbols as well as numbers and capital letters. :rant:
 

Brightdreamer

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Frog - My guess would be rat, not mouse: rats are more clever and more persistent, in my experience. (Also, rodent skulls can collapse to a degree; they can get through surprisingly small gaps.)

Wednesday morning, chilling before work. Driving Mom's car yesterday (she needed it gassed up and doesn't know how, then insisted on hitting several stores) really set my danged tailbone back. Dang it...

Off I meander.
 

Brightdreamer

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Wednesday afternoon, and nothing much worth noting, save cancelling my screening appointment on Friday. (They're making me drive into Seattle. They used to do screening right out here, and I swear they said nothing about Seattle when I made the appointment - if I'd known, I'd never have made it for a work day, because it's impossible to get from here to there at that time. There must be an equipment issue. So I cancelled. I will wait until there is not an equipment issue, because no way in heck am I driving into Seattle if I can at all avoid it.)

Meh...

Just finished my latish lunch. May watch something before I have to start dinner.
 

TedTheewen

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I made some rhubarb ice cream today. It's hardening in the freezer right now.

I messed around a bit with my plant containers and in a bit I'll go back to it. We've got a storm rolling through later on tonight so that should help things.

I still haven't written anything for a while. Not sure what happened.
 

MaeZe

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By being Wednesday. may vary by time zone

*departs, having made that invaluable contribution to the canon of the Cantina*

:ROFL:

Do you get Memorial Day off LadyV? Just think, not only is that a three-day weekend, but it also means only 4 days until Friday next.

What I want to know is why does the damn lawn need mowing again already?

On the bright side, summer is only beginning, winter is essentially over, and here I am working on finishing edits sitting in my beautiful backyard in shorts. In front of me on the other side of the fence is my Hundred Acre Wood. My WIP begins in the woods.
 
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E.F.B.

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:Wha:

I CANNOT EVEN seems about right.

I hope you reported them. You can bet they'll be trying that fraud with other people too, who may not have family to defend them.
Yes, we've done everything we know to do to try to get it stopped, including having uncle call and say explicitly that it's not true. According to him, the care center's response was something along the line of, "Yeah, that just happens sometimes." *head explodes* HOW DOES SOMETHING LIKE THAT "JUST HAPPEN" SOMETIMES???? Sounds to me like they make it "just happen" sometimes in the hopes the victim is too old and senile to know how or if to stop them. *fume*


On lighter topics, that's nice that you save the saplings and send them somewhere they can grow. A couple Sundays ago, we (actually, da puppy who is very sensitive to things changing in her backyard) discovered an almond had sprouted up overnight in the backyard. No idea where said almond came from since the only ones we have are the toasted and edible kind, which you'd think wouldn't be viable seeds anymore, and we eat the ones we buy, so it doesn't make sense that one would end up out back, against the foundation of the house. I'm wondering if the tree I saw blooming in the neighbor's yard a month or so ago might be an almond tree (too far away to tell for sure) and if a squirrel or bird might have brought a seed over to us. Anyway, we decided to move it and replant it in the front yard since da weird puppy was freaking about it appearing so suddenly and we also couldn't have it growing against the foundation of the house. No reason not to, and at least it will have pretty flowers and provide food and shelter for the local wildlife. It's still alive, so hoping it will grow into a nice tree for us.

What I want to know is why does the damn lawn need mowing again already?
QFT.



Morning, Cantina. The bad news: Tuesday night I was walking in the front yard when I stepped on a piece of wood I didn't see, fell, and tweaked my foot to an annoying degree. I don't think anything is broken and it's actually been better yesterday and today than it was Tuesday night, but it's still sore and bruised. *mumbles things about stupid pieces of wood hiding in the grass* Also, da beagle's left eye had been bothering him enough we decided he needed to go to the vet.

The good news: The vet was able to work the beagle in yesterday morning and the eye is nothing serious. He basically has the doggy equivalent of a small stye and we've been given instructions on how to treat it.

As there were no other appointments we had to go to yesterday and the vet didn't take too long, we were then FINALLY able to go see the Tolkien movie. I really enjoyed it. It's touching and beautiful and I welled up a few times. Not many people in the theater, (four people besides me and my parents) but as I told some fellow Tolkien fans when talking to them about it, I feel like whomever decided to release this biopic alongside all these explodey, actiony summer blockbusters, kinda shot themselves in the foot. "Tolkien" has it's moments of war action, but the beauty of the film is in its quiet, but deep heart. I agree with some friends who expressed that the film would have done better monetarily had it been released in November when one expects the quieter, more thoughtful films to come out. Anyway, I and my fellow movie goers really enjoyed it and I'll definitely be getting the DVD when it comes out.

Today, I'll be writing until time for dad's dental appointment. He still has fillings he needs to get done. Just hoping none of them are too bad since he's kinda been putting them off.
 

Brightdreamer

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*waves to people*

Thursday afternoon, sunny, and a robin is singing in the yard in a most stereotypical way.

Seriously, day, be a little original. We get it - it's late spring! Yeesh...

Work existed. Somewhat light, so we got out a little early. Right now, I'm going to investigate whether the kitchen is clear of relatives; a snack cup of trail mix is not cuttin' it for lunch, I'm afraid, but the sibling was camped out by the stove when I got home. Ergh... an apple at least? Could I get a frellin' apple without provoking a snitfit?

Off I wander.
 

Brightdreamer

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Mergh... Thursday evening, and discovered another household Issue that should've been caught some time ago, but wasn't: a long-term leak in the bathroom that Dad and the sibling use almost exclusively, bad to the point of needing to rebuild part of a cabinet (at least) and possibly two ant nests. Yes, ant nests. And nobody mentioned this. (Dad has an excuse: he's almost 90 and his mind is not what it used to be. The sibling, not so much... though, boy, did she pitch a tantrum about it.) So Mom and I will likely have to deal with that, unless it's bad enough we have to call someone in.

I'm starting to wonder if Mom shouldn't take her doctor up on a referral to someone to talk to, re: the sibling. It's doing none of our blood pressure any good dealing with the tantrums and the problems she seems to leave scattered in her wake...

Sorry. End of mini-rant. Just really gets to me sometimes.

Anyway, dinner has been consumed, and I gave in and ordered a new window shade for my car (because my one from last year is AWOL, and the only way to make it turn up again is to order another one.) Now I think I'll pop some popcorn and view another episode (or two, if I'm ambitious) of Altered Carbon. (I may have ordered the book when I ordered my window shade - because I am a weak, weak person.)
 

Friendly Frog

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Frog - My guess would be rat, not mouse: rats are more clever and more persistent, in my experience. (Also, rodent skulls can collapse to a degree; they can get through surprisingly small gaps.)
Hmm, it's not impossible but they're not able to hide their presence as well as mice. We have had rats taking up residence in the garden before, but their outsized burrows usually gives them away soon enough.

Collapsable skulls, now there's a new one... Well, I guess I will have to refine Plantcatraz for autumn then to even finer mesh.

What I want to know is why does the damn lawn need mowing again already?
Have you asked the lawn, what did it have to say for itself?

I'm wondering if the tree I saw blooming in the neighbor's yard a month or so ago might be an almond tree (too far away to tell for sure) and if a squirrel or bird might have brought a seed over to us. Anyway, we decided to move it and replant it in the front yard since da weird puppy was freaking about it appearing so suddenly and we also couldn't have it growing against the foundation of the house. No reason not to, and at least it will have pretty flowers and provide food and shelter for the local wildlife. It's still alive, so hoping it will grow into a nice tree for us.
That's cool. The wildlife will live it, I'm sure. Win-win! It's always so amazing at what distance seeds can travel.

As there were no other appointments we had to go to yesterday and the vet didn't take too long, we were then FINALLY able to go see the Tolkien movie. I really enjoyed it. It's touching and beautiful and I welled up a few times. Not many people in the theater, (four people besides me and my parents) but as I told some fellow Tolkien fans when talking to them about it, I feel like whomever decided to release this biopic alongside all these explodey, actiony summer blockbusters, kinda shot themselves in the foot. "Tolkien" has it's moments of war action, but the beauty of the film is in its quiet, but deep heart. I agree with some friends who expressed that the film would have done better monetarily had it been released in November when one expects the quieter, more thoughtful films to come out. Anyway, I and my fellow movie goers really enjoyed it and I'll definitely be getting the DVD when it comes out.
I have been doubting whether I'd make an effort to see the Tolkien movie. I've soured mostly of cinemas and I feared they'd add a lot more action to liven the movie up. I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed it.

I hope your foot gets better soon.

Mergh... Thursday evening, and discovered another household Issue that should've been caught some time ago, but wasn't: a long-term leak in the bathroom that Dad and the sibling use almost exclusively, bad to the point of needing to rebuild part of a cabinet (at least) and possibly two ant nests. Yes, ant nests. And nobody mentioned this. (Dad has an excuse: he's almost 90 and his mind is not what it used to be. The sibling, not so much... though, boy, did she pitch a tantrum about it.) So Mom and I will likely have to deal with that, unless it's bad enough we have to call someone in.
I'd love to be able to say I never had to deal with ant nests in the house. But sadly, I can't it. It sucks and you have my sympathy. The good news is that you can get ant nests out of the house, the bad news is that it took us four bloody months and only after stripping most of the rotten wood, which in our case ran into the wall and floor. (The 'fun' part was that after taking a bath, they started swarming in the room next door, because these ants usually swarm after hot rains...)

My sibling and I never could be in the same room (or house) for long, but at least she mostly took care of her own problems (and I threw most of the -justified, mind-tantrums anyway). Yours sound absolutely exhausting. :Hug2:Maybe just some advice from a professional can help inprove the situation.
 

lilyWhite

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Plantcatraz

Now I'm picturing a magical prison built within a sentient tree, where vines and roots and other plants within ensure the prisoners are kept in line.

*adds that to the lore of her setting, even if it'll probably never come up in the books and probably no one will ever set eyes on them anyway*
 

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Hee, that's an interesting mental picture. I bet that Plantcatraz does not have a mice problem!
 

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Friday morning, and cloudy with possible dampness.

Heading out to work in a bit, via dropping the garbage off at the bottom of the lane. (Dunno why I bother... I mean, someone's just going to come along and take it. Though at least they take it from everyone, not just us. Was worrying we were being targeted, but, no, there's other empty cans there when I come home. ;) )