You know it's almost Christmas when...

Top Ten Signs of How To Tell When It's Almost Christmas:

10. When the cashier at Walmart actually manages a smile when she says "Happy Holidays!" during a busy period.

9. When you rush out to get some Christmas cards to mail out to all the people who suddenly sent you one at the last minute.

8. When there are more pine needles in your carpet than on your tree.

7. When light displays on everyone's houses in the neighborhood convey the true meaning of competition.

6. When you bake up a couple dozen cookies to mix in and give away with all the other cookies everyone else gave you.

5. When you want to give fruitcake to all the people you don't like but you still have the fruitcake you got from them last year.

4. When thousands of soloists without enough musical talent to tune a kazoo are somehow invited to sing "O Holy Night" in public.

3. When the plastic light-up manger goes up on the roof of the local pub.

2. When TV specials get crazy ridiculous: "Charlie Brown and Frosty the Snowman Track the Grinch Who Stole Rudolph's Red Nose and Started All the Animals Talking when he Surgically Transplanted it on the Littlest Donkey."

And the #1 Sign of How To Tell When It's Almost Christmas:

When stores start advertising "Only 375 shopping days until next Christmas."

Random time for a random memory

What a moment to pull out a faded memory. My mother at one time was in the middle of a serious hobby in photography. By the time I arrived, mom had a 35 mm camera - a rather good one she used for color film & slides. Unfortunately, nearly 400 color slides were lost in 2005. I managed to scan the ones left in a metal box - something I had a hand in happening. The camera ended up getting broken & eventually destroyed, and us being a dependent family, didn't have the money for repairing it, among the many other things we didn't have money for.

But the things I remembered randomly were her having a light meter device. I remember a random device I played with but didn't know how it worked or what it was for. It's such an early memory I don't remember what it looked like. I don't know what happened to it. But I remember there was this thing & that had to be what it was after seeing a video online. I just can't pick out a light meter model & sadly Mom isn't here to identify them if she still even could.

Mom also had a photographer's film developing kit & it vanished after we moved from the Mount Jackson house. Some years later I figured out what I saw in the attic of a house my father owned. A family member was saying how he was going to get to use it when he got older & Mom used to talk about her developing kit on occasion which got taken from her. I finally put the 2 things together some years ago. It could have been the same thing. A shame my mom gave up her hobby to raise a family. It wasn't the only thing she abandoned for a family. She had an X-ray Technician certificate at one point.

Delight & Despair at the store

Went out today to grocery shop at Walfart while it wasn't snowing or below freezing today to get hopefully enough supplies for hopefully the rest of the month before it snowed again (which it did) & then went below freezing... Doritos / Cheetos had advertised their NKD varieties on Facebook  - Doritos & Cheetos without artificial dyes, etc, and then you saw the crowd of "Ewww, seed oils..." & my thought was "You guys grew up eating all that stuff & never complained and you listen to a few Toktik influenzas & suddenly you think you have a problem??" I really wanted a bag of regular Doritos NKD but all people left was Cool Ranch & I find that flavor gross. But if there was another flavor other than Flaming Hot Cheetos, I couldn't tell - but I like Flaming Hot anyway, as can be seen in Flaming Hot Dill Pickle Cheetos... 

AND THEN I FOUND KELPO!! As well as another new flavor of Pebbles cereal! And the best discovery of the trip - DiRusso Italian Sausage patties returned! As could be seen, tis a popular product as it was nearly sold out. Got me a new box & decided to have the one still in my freezer for supper. It's been in there for 6 months (Best by date was in June!), still cooked up fine. Got the last bag of Shredded Queso & bless the person who moved my favorite Chicken Smoked Sausage off the top shelf to near the bottom. I needed 3 for crockpot dried beans recipes. 

There were 4 products I did not find at all 😢  - Egg Nog ice cream, Peppermint hot cocoa, Hostess Hot Cocoa cupcakes (they had them in but was obviously sold out dangit), and Peppermint Mocha Oreos. I did find Reese's filling Oreos but I decided I'm making cookies anyway with walnuts & toffee pieces. Didn't see any insane crazy Reese's products like last year ($30 bucket anyone). But got Mint M&Ms. 

So glad I got out to hopefully stock up on foodstuffs. Now I got my cat's teeth to deal with.

Toybox Lid Repair Went As I mostly Expected

Another project a long time in being resolved is my broken toybox, its lid damaged since I got it as a wee lad. It was made by my grandfather & right off the bat it was the hinges on the back of the lid which broke off & the wood they were screwed into which completely split & the lid never again worked as made. Also as a kid, I enacted the only repair I knew - simply rework the lid so the hinges would attach. And for the most part, that plan pretty much worked.

And that was the state of the lid ever since. For over 50 years this toybox rarely held any actual toys; when I first got it, it was where my Steve Austin $6 million dollar Man & associated stuff resided. And up until May 2018, I still retained Steve in his rocket until evil stole it from me. During the time in Mom's home, it was eventually home to 7 Atari 2600s. Also stolen from me. When I got older, it rarely held any toys, much like my dresser which never held any actual clothes but instead contained my oldest videotapes.

When I moved, the toybox became storage & a seat for my kitchen area. Being of reduced & limited physical ability, it was essential. But when I moved into my current place, I decided I would figure out how to completely repair the lid problem. I decided on using Piano Hinges (aka Continuous Hinges) to replace the 2 little failed & bent hinges originally put on it. I also found out about wood filler products to fix the damaged edges & had applied some but never finished that step. But I did get to see how well the product would perform. I hope the unused portion is still viable in the cans/ I bought 2 small cans, opened only 1.

Another item I obtained, this time from Amazon, was a lid stand. Actually I think of it as an action limiter. It will hold the lid up by itself, but also prevent it from opening too wide. I seem to recall there being one but it was angrily removed & lost to time.

The only problem in fixing the lid was its eventual split. I figured I would find a way to repair it using wood dowels & proper strong wood glue. The only problem with that is I needed a drill bit large enough for the dowels I would use & a proper way to drill them perpendicular to the surfaces of the wood & on top of that, in spite of the irregular edge it now has due to splitting. Elmer's glue was not strong enough.

After a visit to Lowe's, I obtained said hinges, a small hand saw for cutting the dowels I had bought months earlier at Walmart (5/16 inch diameter), and a proper size drill bit. What I also needed was a dowel drilling jig. I got 1 of these off eBay. It came with no box nor instructions, however a video or 2 on Youtube showed me the tricks of getting this doohickey to help me get it positioned. What I also needed was a way to keep it square. That task fell to my straight edge level & 2 Atari 2600 cartridges - at least their shells.

After that was a logic puzzle to sort out how to square things up, clamp in place, then drill. 8 drill holes later after developing a flow & technique, I was fitting the dowel bits, gluing it up, & clamped. The result of that you see above. The main part was applying enough glue to have it spill out during clamping. As Julian Baumgartner has said, you want that extra glue to squeeze out so the joint isn't starved of adhesive.

Once this step has finished drying, I'm looking to once again fix the edges with that putty filler stuff (I forgot what it's called but I got it at Lowe's), drill pilot holes for the screws, replace the cross bits inside the lid I had to remove years ago, add the lid stop, and do the hinges. And then maybe clean it out? I guess I should.

My next project is fixing the other assemble it yourself bookshelf. I need more screws maybe. I thought I had some for that already. Then getting a service manual for my Magnavox big screen TV. It turns on, but no picture & I believe the CRT is getting some voltage. I hope to see a burned out resistor or transistor.  

The results of my cooking Thanksgiving 2025

The results of my cooking this year:

The pumpkin pie was baked on Tuesday & after 2 days in the fridge, I found the flavors to have a definite sweet note with the spices really being there. It's like the Pumpkin Spice mini wheats cereal. I've never tasted it so sweet so maybe the recipe I followed on the Walmart canned pumpkin needs the sugar reduced a bit?

I changed how I cooked the turkey breast roast. I put it in while still mostly frozen into an oven coming down from 350F, and baked it for about 30 minutes until the oven recovered at 325 like the wrapper said. Then I covered it with aluminum foil. I had already sprayed it with cooking spray while cold. Then at 2 hours into roasting, I added water to the roasting pan to prevent the residue from drying out since the fat had rendered out unlike other times I've cooked these. In the end, I got a good amount of drippings (if you could call it that) which made the gravy packet turn out really good for once.

I kicked up the greener beaner casserole a notch with some imitation bacon bits. I also weighed out 5 ounces of french fried onions & put the last 2 on top from the 7 ounce packet.

The loaded cornbread was different this year, but still came out okay. I also measured the cheese by weight which I probably shouldn't do.

And instead of mashed potatoes I decided to microwave a single potato & mashed that. It tends to take up a lot more room than a dollop of pre-mashed. The gravy came out kind of salty though.

A rice dish I considered was cancelled. I still have the garbanzo bean crockpot stuff in the fridge, & I'll likely open the cranberry sauce later.

I ran live streams for the Macy's parade on my laptop since the TV needs serviced. The tube seems to be getting voltage but a burned out component (hopefully just a resistor) needs replaced.

I miss my mom. She loved the holidays. At least I still cook. 

Dried Garbanzos with Vigo Spanish Seasoning?

Finally got to set up the Dried Garbanzo Beans recipe I have been trying to do for months simply because I couldn't find Vigo Spanish Seasoning. I found out using a packet or 2 of Goya Con Azafran with Taco Seasoning is very close & one smell from the open packets said the same thing. Thankfully I had found a packet of Dash! Salt Free taco seasoning.

The other part was needing 3 pounds of red potatoes, cubed. When I checked my mail, someone had donated a bag of them! I was able to fit only 2 pounds, even after cutting them up & discarding the bad bits. Another thing about my mail - the damn Comenity Envelope was actually there!!! 👍

Also dried garbanzo beans make noises while soaking.

Anyway, the whole shebang is in the crockpot on low for 8 - 10 hours. Should be interesting when it finally gets to smelling up the place.

The desk has 3 drawers once again!

Finally, a project I had been planning for the past 5 years, in the works for at least 30, and for something missing for at least 45 years... finally came to fruition today.

 

An old yellow desk which had been given to a former family member had 3 drawers originally but something happened to the bottom drawer & instead of fixing it, the parts were just thrown away. I ended up inheriting it & I vowed some day to recreate that drawer but at the time I lacked the time, knowledge, & resources to make it come true.

 

During the COVID lockdown & during a fit of having to clean my room extra well, I finally pulled out the best example of a drawer for the desk & measured it in metric. I left the plans for the drawer in a notebook for the past 5 years. It was only within the past couple of months was I able to figure out what I needed.

 

I needed a sheet of wood 7 mm thick - nothing at Lowe's was that thick, so I had to make do with 5 mm thick wood. I would need wood glue, a way to cut the pieces, and importantly, a way to cut channels in the wood for the bottom to slide in. Which also made for a way to glue it firmly in place. That meant a router / cutter accessory for my rotary tool. I got that part done on Tuesday... and getting there wasn't easy because the accessory I got off Amazon wasn't made for my particular tool. The kit required modification. But I knew once I had completed what I needed cut, the drawer would come together quickly.

 

Another problem is I had to rely on someone else to cut the wood into the pieces I needed. The result wasn't perfect but it was good enough to work in spite of the indelicate variances. They weren't horribly bad to make it not work. 

Once I was able to test fit everything, gluing it together, figuring out how to attach the front, centering the drawer pull, clamping it during glue curing... it wasn't easy & maybe there's a better easier way to do it, but I didn't know what it was. But after 2 days of using my rotary tool as a router, I was finally able to see it take shape.

I tried using 1 inch nails to hold it together, but the out of squareness of the resulting box required removing them during gluing. And repeated gluing. I was able to precisely cut a narrow strip for the bottom because in spite of measuring twice & cutting, the bottom was under 1 centimeter short. I wanted it all to glue together tightly so as to prevent ingress of pests.

Finally on Friday, I figured out how the front will attach to hide the mess behind it. I had already figured out how to center the drawer pull, having to cut the bolt to attach it, and then needing a washer to take up a bit of space for a tight fit.

Then today I got out the Polyurethane stuff & gave it all a coat. I didn't see the need to do 2 coats. What I failed to understand is this stuff was not the varnish I used to remember from years ago. It's just a protectant which just absorbed right into the wood, so I'm probably going to be looking for another small container of something.

I got it inserted into the desk & it fits tightly but that was to be expected. I may use some crayon or diatomaceous earth for ease in movement... And the drawer I had in there was moved to the bottom & then I see how that bottom drawer slot has a problem for proper closure. So another problem to figure out?  

I was able to remove the makeshift box I bought & modified to set in place so I could store some of my manga books. In the end, I was able to store all but 6 books from the box. I just need to figure out how to throw the makeshift box away. I feel bad I spent money on it only for it to not quite fit my needs but also fit my needs somewhat. I don't think it cost me much... maybe $11?

 

Not unlike Chili

I spent a few hours this afternoon working on the question of my desk drawer replacement. Finally. 3 hours using my rotary tool & a rigged up routing attachment accessory because it wasn't made for my particular rotary tool but once adapted, performed its task about averagely.

I say about averagely because the tool heated up for much of the use asked of it. The routing bit seemed like it gave up being sharp enough to affect the wood it was being asked to do something to. After 3 hours & a long day - with 1 inch left on a big piece - I gave up & decided to take a break, What I did next I had never done in all the time I owned this rotary tool - I took it apart & applied some lubricating oil to the proper parts. The inner workings are shockingly simple. A DC motor hooked to a power cord with a simple switch.

A proper rest later, I decided I was finally going to make Chili, or namely Random Chili. I start with a vague idea of what Chili is to me & I hopefully arrive later at something edible reminding me of chili. This meant defrosting a 1 pound roll of ground turkey, chopping the better parts of a decent onion, chopping a green pepper, rinsing & slicing an 8 ounce box of common white mushrooms, finding 3 small tomatoes in the vegetable drawer I had forgotten about having suddenly sprouted mold on 2 of them - I rinsed & chopped the lone good tomato - and then rounded up the diced garlic, garlic powder, chili powder, Siracha sauce, Chef Troy's Crunchy Chili Garlic Sauce, & Adobo. The canned ingredients ended up being 1 can no salt diced tomatoes, 1 small can tomato paste, 1 can no salt corn (drained), 1 can no salt kidney beans, 1 can no salt dark red kidney beans, 1 can low sodium black beans. And that was enough!

Mom would get out her stock pot & nearly fill it up with whatever she made. And we'd eat off the treasured meal for a couple weeks. Anywho, I get my chili going, get everything cooked through. And taste it. Excellent again. What's even better is it'll thicken when it cools down. I love it when I get that going on. Didn't need cheese or spaghetti.

I have plans to finish cutting the groove I need in the pieces for the desk drawer replacement tomorrow. I just wish I had been able to finish today before my stamina ran out. Or was that my pain relief? 

Pizza turned out the way I imagined it would

With free tomatoes from the donation table, I decided when I got back from my activities on Tuesday, I would make pizza. Well, I had to recover & wait until Wednesday for the pizza to happen, but it turned out as I thought it would!

Yeast raised dough from my bread machine, low sodium pasta sauce seasoned with Adobo, Basil, Oregano, Thyme, & Garlic powder. Shredded Queso, thick sliced Pepperoni, sliced small round tomatoes I got for free, 1/2 diced onion, sprinkled with some Adobo before baking & grated Parmesan afterwards, with a bit of butter rubbed on the edge crust & allowed to cool.

The best thing is I didn't use a lot of the sauce because then it would be too wet at the end. And I probably used 1/2 cup shredded Queso - it was whatever I had left in the bag, but it covered the sauce well enough. 10 minute pre-bake after rolling out the dough at 400 F, 15 minute bake at 425 F topped. It came out nicely & a bit crispy. I used a recipe which called for olive oil & only 2 cups of flour. I wanted to save on flour for this one & this dough spread out on my large cookie sheet just fine. Next time I might add grated Parmesan during the kneading. 

And I had 1/3 of it left for breakfast. Cold pizza is da bomb! It also smelled so nice baking & afterwards.

A couple Christmas Card Recipes

Checking the mail room had a few items on a donation table & 2 Christmas cards had recipes. I took pictures so others may claim them, but in the meantime, I transcribed the handwriting for this post.  

Pesto Chicken

1. Lay chicken tenders in oven safe dish.
2. Cover with pesto.
3. Cover with shredded cheese.
4. Cover with sun dried tomatoes.
5. Bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Beef Stroganoff 

1. Chop 2-3 onions. Separately chop mushrooms & 3-4 cloves garlic.
2. With 2 tablespoons of butter, sautee onions on medium-low heat.
3. When onions are translucent, add mushrooms & garlic and a dash of Worcestershire. Sautee & set aside.
4. In a deep pan, add beef & another 2 tablespoons of butter.
5. Sautee on medium until meat is browned.
6. Dust with flour.
7. Add onions, mushrooms, & garlic mixture to meat.
8. Add 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire and salt & pepper.
9. Simmer until mixture is a thick gravy.
10. Remove from heat and 3-4 dollops of sour cream. Enjoy over egg noodles!

Mondays aren't too bad for shopping, I guess

MONDAY... I went shopping at the Route 62 Walmart hoping they would have some things Alliance didn't, like the DiRusso patties, and..  I got my answer on that separately.

Meanwhile, I hadn't been in that Walmart for a few months & holy crap they moved around that store, too!! Like what the hell? I say they do this to confuse shoplifters.

Pet food moved to the back instead of off to the right of the pharmacy. Personal care & medical related stuff occupies that now. Toys were moved as well. Then they put some sort of fashion highlight stage in the middle of the clothing section like they're trying to be like the mid to high end stores they competed out of business against... which disrupts the walking flow.

Was hoping to grab another bag of Halloween candy but did not. Did find Con Azafran though!! 1st time finding it! I'm also getting an idea on where Pepitas are stocked & found those, too. They moved Dairy around, cookies, & snack chips like Cheezits were moved. Bread was moved. Cereal aisle completely flipped. Some places remained the same because they kind of have to. Couldn't find any 3 pound turkey breast roasts... Maybe not until November?

Also they're bringing in these new center coffin freezers which have more windows on the sides. But now with sliding doors which some people can't be arsed to close after they're done looking. Saw that happen more than once.

It was a good trip to visit another store for once. I made an effort. And I got 2 more zany Crimmas ornaments! The display wasn't as elaborate as the Alliance Walmart but still found a couple.

I once had an idea, then I got a better one

And in the span of about 2 hours, I have effected a better fix for my bed in regard to ribs which keep falling out. 3/8 inch bolts Grade 8 bought yesterday at Lowe's where I made a sizeable purchase of supplies.

The plan was to buy 12 8 inch long 3/8 inch bolts Grade 8 (decently strong! from info I had searched) & with a metal rated 3/8 inch drill bit, punch holes through the bed frame & slide them through & into the ribs which were 3/8 inch hollow. And that plan pretty much held through! I fixed the 2 most annoying ribs, including the 1st one which I had slapped a ton of Gorilla Tape on & was more or less still in place. But finally I had a better idea. The fix I put in place at the time was born in the middle of the night with the idea of getting the heck back to sleep & maybe for the past year worked well enough.

Lowe's didn't have 12 8 inch bolts but 4 3 inch ones... But I also got 6 8 inch 3/8 inch bolts of a lesser grade. Don't know how strong they are, but hopefully if I need to replace the ones now in use, they'll do until I get the 8 inch bolts.

The idea was to make it impossible for the ribs to fall out when parts of my bed frame somehow twist & bend & allow ribs to fall out of their U shaped catch supports. Punch a hole through, shove in a honking long strong bolt, & be done with it. It's a design oversight. Bad engineering.

IT'S TOO CUSTOM

Spent $128 at the hardware grocery store Lowe's. They refused to cut a sheet of wood for me saying it's "too custom." I got supplies for a few projects. Fixing my bed frame, strengthening my (not) Ikea bookshelf, fixing a storage box lid, and a craft project - making a drawer missing from a desk. My grandfather made the toy box when I was 5 and the lid broke practically in the 1st year of having it. And the missing desk drawer fell apart like over 40 years ago for some reason. During COVID I measured another intact drawer to see what it would need to make one. Now I just need to get the wood cut.

 

Dr. Demento Retired

I discovered Dr. D from records I bought while in Columbus in the mid 80s & then after coming back home found his show on late night radio on Sundays. I would get cassette tapes & record them... followed him from one radio station to another... & then suddenly he was off the air locally & then off the air period. Westwood One & On The Radio Broadcasting syndicated the show but for some reason refused to offer a list of stations carrying Dr. D. Like they didn't want anyone to listen & it was up to the fanbase to report in. Eventually he went online when he really deserved a satellite radio channel. Musical comedy & spoken word comedy along with offbeat unreleased tapes, rare 78s... His record collection is so massive, when he finally moved the floor in the rooms he had it in were discovered to be sagging! Dr. D is a rare one. Whatever happened to the movie someone was making about him?

Accomplished

I accomplished 3 things digitally yesterday:

1. Searching for liner notes on the Terrorvision Rockafire Explosion release, I ran across a listing of the vinyl edition on eBay by none other than Creative Engineering himself, Aaron Fechter! It was $700 & he sold 8 of them before it was Sold Out (which included a 2 hour tour package) - and in the gallery of images with the listing was clear images of the liner notes booklet, covers included! I grabbed them with plans to print a CD sized booklet which should have been included anyway!! I didn't really need character photos or a gatefold poster.

2. Managed to download 2 different PDFs of the October 2025 Previews order catalog... One was 20 mb & the other was much larger. Previous 2 files were almost 250mb.

3. Got Google's AI search assistant to produce a recipe for lentils in the crockpot which is much like the recipe I used months ago when I got all those bags & then somehow lost it! I don't know how it got lost when I made it over & over for like 3 months!!

DIY Laser Pointer

Tired of buying cheaply made laser pointers off eBay which go bad faster than old milk, I decided to buy the parts & improve on them.

1. AAA battery boxes with good electrical connections instead of using metallized paint to conduct current.

2. Separately connected laser diode bought in pack of 10 made for a 3V power source.

3. Only thing reused from last broken pointer was the push button switch.

Now I need a sturdy casing for this. If the diode goes bad, I have 9 more to replace it with. And yes, Poofball has missed his red dot.

I was declared CLEAR.

Had an interesting visit (announced) by Akron Pest Control. Got to me around 11:30. 3 guys show up armed with flashlights. Start looking, asking about if I'd seen any mice. Had me get off the gray chair & soon it dawns on me they're not here to replace bug traps or preventative spray. They're checking for other bugs. Bedbugs. I've been clear of them for at least 3 or 4 years now. I explain to them how that happened & maybe I should have gotten a new mattress when I moved up here.

They check the red chair & it's clean. I never thought to check the gray chair... Guy flips it over & there's signs they got under the one cushion but it's all dead. And my reaction is at first "oh shit" then "oh I didn't think to check there."

MEANWHILE, as 2 guys are distracting me, the 1 guy who went to check the bedroom proceeds to rip nearly all my bed stuff off my mattress without warning or saying he was going to. I WOULD HAVE LIKED A WARNING! Because even if they were doing their job, coming back into my bedroom & seeing a naked bed was alarming & irritating (having to put things back was irritating).

I think same guy checked out my closet... 😀 one guy had to comment about the maid outfit.

But in the end, I was proclaimed Clear of bugs. It helps I found the UV LED bug catcher on Saturday & managed to finally deal with those annoying sink flies. They confirmed with me I knew how to recognize signs of those bugs & oh yes, I certainly knew... 😰

And with the relevation of the chair cushion, I made sure to unscrew & remove it, vacuum what that 1 guy found, spray down with bed bug killer & 91% alcohol, & reglue the bottom paper back on. Chair cleaned. It's a good thing I had done all that other cleaning for stuff, like under 1 bookcase a few months ago.

Maybe now I can ask for reinstating of my laundry room privileges. 

Creamy Shicken & mushrooms with rice (not a recipe)

Today's feast from the crockpot was inspired by last week's Foosebook Memory of Creamy Chicken & Mushrooms with rice. Though with changes & maybe not the same recipe.

I bought mushrooms a couple weeks ago for this & a pack of shicken only to swap it for a pack I already have here since June & starting to look freezer burned. Which was cool since it was 2 breasts at 1.22 pounds.

Anecdotes for this recipe: I had to make my own Cream of Mushroom Condensed soup to hopefully keep the sodium down (although the main overall recipe had something...). And my milk was the mixed up nonfat dry. But it still thickened in the pot!

The other bit was needing a pouch of dry onion soup mix - which in the past I use for Lazy Onion Bread. It was only after opening the Aldi product box which I noticed it's been here so long, tiny bugs tried their best to infiltrate inside the sealed box & THEN when they did tried to eat through the paper for the pouch! This whole operation ultimately failed & signs of devastated civilizations were left in its wake.

Everything mixed up & put in the crock & on high for 4.5 hours. I plan to add 1/2 cup of rice 1 hour before done & check to see if the chicken will shred as the recipe says. Though I used to make this for mom & bake it instead. No shredding.

I regret shopping

Thursday ended up being a day of regrets. Only those regrets came on Friday as my right hip & lower back had a severe pinch where standing up & walking was painful if my front sagged too much. Saturday morning with some acetaminophen & the chance decision to lift my right leg up off the bed (with some help) & sleep last night with hard metal items behind my back contributed to something popping back in place with residual soreness.

My goal Thursday was shopping for stuff. Groceries & other items.

- Blue dye because I splashed bleach on my blue Hawaiian shirt & as it turns out the dye in my shirt is extremely vulnerable to bleach meaning white splotches. There was no blue dye so I opted for a fabric paint pen which the blue is too bright. I need some black or a darker blue dye.

- LED light strip for under the cabinets in the corner. I opted instead for an LED light bar which looks like a Fluorescent light but much smaller.

After getting it fixed in place with easy remove adhesive strips & running it for 1 night, I find it's way too bright. So either I cover part of it up, add a timer to turn it off at midnight, or resume shutting my door at bed time. It even has the capability to daisy chain more LED bars to it.

- My project to reshell my M Network Atari 2600 cartridges progresses with the acquisition of DIY Sticker Decal printer sheets. Some fans online have made their own label designs as if they had been in Atari shells & I like the artwork. Thankfully it's gettable in decently high resolution so it will print well. But I need to get some of the games from my tubs to test if they will reshell or how to make it work.

The only thing I did not find was a Bug Catching UV plug in light as I had seen online. Walmart was supposed to have it & apparently an adhesive catcher refill kit for it. I need it for the sink flies I keep having.

Also did not find pumpkin seeds. Like where are they? Did not buy milk as I have the free packets of dry milk people don't want & I've got 6 gallons worth. I just need to sanitize a jug, add 12 cups of water, refrigerate overnight, & then add 3 4-cup pouches of dry & shake well. The single cup packets I use in making bread!

Also returned to see more free food rejects - picked up a can of tomato sauce (not salt free) & bags of dried lentils & garbanzo beans.

Though when I got back, there was some schmuck in my parking place. I should have waited because he left soon after I was sat on the bench & I was in pain but pissed off I had to move my van but weighed down with leaving my shopping trolley at the mercy of possibly getting stolen. So instead of wasting energy & losing my stuff, I went inside in pain.

Spent Friday in pain. Hopefully today is healing.

Inspection 2025

THE RESULTS:

She dinged me on the tiny gnats. Blamed it on my red cart (which didn't look clean), the cat food bowls (which they're not attracted to), & my trash... which she gave me until she left the floor to get it out of the building... I was not exactly prepared to do so & in hindsight I really should have removed it yesterday or earlier today. But with her fueling my adrenalin, managed for the 1st time in a couple years to take that bag down & around the side to put it in the dumpster.

She's telling me how my fly catching strip wasn't "good enough" & how they could "spread to other units" but later I'm thinking these ain't those bugs & how do we know these didn't come from someone else? You know?

So anywho, I grab the bag, tie it, & get downstairs. Won't fit in the trash thing by the street, so around the side I go... while needing a few sitting rests. Get back in, check my mail & food discards & back up. And I greet her at the elevator. She's likely pleased I got out & did what she asked & I'm worn out & couldn't respond when she says "Good seeing you again." Silence is golden in my case.

She didn't pick over the floors - & she better not as I wiped them over 3 times. She didn't see the cat pan bag I hadn't taken out yet - it was hidden in plain sight & thanks to Tidy Cat, wasn't odiferous. I had the mop I'd been using in the bucket with water & clothes soap in the tub because otherwise it would be stinking it up... It really needs bleached. And something I bought last week was used to hide some stuff where it wouldn't be seen.

No remark about the blind or the moved tubs. But man did she home in on the flies. The red cart got a clear & wipedown. Found mold growing under the cutting board. Bleaching the dickens out of that. It's bamboo.

I missed the empty cat food can & drip of melted cheese on the inside of the oven window & she also missed them. She looked in the fridge, oven, & I think 1 cabinet door. Did not look in any closets (dammit).

I need some red paint for the cart to repair what has now come off it. Probably a little thing of Rustoleum will do.

Had my crock pot going & ran the bread machine. She arrived by 1:14 p.m. & was done with the floor at 1:44. I held off using the toilet because of her. And she has maintained the tradition of not being my favorite person.

Veggetarian Beans Touch Meat

Went shopping for things yesterday & I'm sorry. My hips & lower back are not happy. Everything went mostly as planned though after I got back, I remembered things I forgot like breakfast sausage patties. I should have enough until next month as I eat only 1 on Sunday when I make my special breakfast.

My main goal was to get everything I couldn't on Monday & had to recuperate for 2 days to feel up to it. I also intended to turn 3 cans of Veggetarian Beans into Non-Veggetarian Chili with adding 1 pound of bulk roll sausage browned with 1 chopped onion & then broken up in the crank chopper so it's distributed evenly throughout the mixture. Sausage grease left in the pot because Fat is Flavor!

After that, those 3 cans of beans + 1 more of Chili Beans, 100+ grams of sliced mushrooms, reduced sodium Old Bay Seasoning, 1 can no salt diced tomatoes, 1 small can tomato paste (which needed using), & perhaps 1/4 to 1/2 cup Siracha Sauce!! Mom would always use Chili Powder but in my recent years it has never really done anything. Maybe it adds a different flavor note? Siracha certainly adds the heat I'm hoping for. Sadly, I didn't get 3 green peppers... Chopped green pepper is the only thing missing - AND THEY HAD HUGE PEPPERS!! When these huge peppers aren't being sold by the pound, you get a decent value for the price!!

Got it nicely heated through, the mixture coalesced & became a form which I consider Chili & some tastes proved it was Darn Good. Maybe the slight sweetness (yuck) in the Veggetarian beans softened the burn or evened it out. I just wanted these cans to kiss meat & grease. Anywho, 4 nights of supper for this.

Rent day

So Yesterday was August 4th. And as such, it was Rent day.

Before I started off, I called West Side Animal Hospital about Poofball's coughing & sneezing & general respiratory problems & asked if I could get amoxicillin like they gave him last time for his respiratory problems 4 years ago. Had to leave a message & they returned the call just as I was leaving out the door at 11:30 to tell me yes, the doctor approved my request!

Soooo I get downstairs & check mail. The other county got its tax bill in with perfect timing. Get to my vehicle and.... Clicking. Ugh. Another starter? Call AAA. Guy gets here rather quickly & tests battery. 9 volts. Not holding a charge. Sets his starter pack on my battery & after a few minutes has me start it up & it complies. Sees my alternator is doing fine. Doesn't have another battery to sell me for $224 but recommends Orielly's or Autozone. So I go to Autozone. $183 dollars on my credit card later & I have a new Duralast battery. I don't like the brand because the Kia had one & during the winter it had to be removed & kept warm. Old battery was 5 years old, a Duralast Gold. I asked if that was a long time & the Autozone lady said it was typical.

Get to West Side & pick up the amoxicillin. $89. I took extra $$$ today. And there it went.

Got to credit union, Didney Drug Fart. Deposit my refills, do whatever shopping I can because it's DDF. Pickup refills. Cost = 0. Because Xarelto ran out. They really need to make it LARGER & MORE OBVIOUS on the sticky labels when it runs out. Actually, these things shouldn't ever run out! Like what the hell? So I confuse the 2, call the refill line, ask for more Entresto, realize my mistake, call back to cancel that & what I need is the Xarelto instead.

I see the store removed the pop vending machine from outside because it competed with the over priced beverage bottles inside. $2.59 for a SINGLE 20 OUNCE BOTTLE OF POP? Get bent.

Return back over 2 hours later than planned. My pain relief has long worn off. Fill out the last of the 3 envelopes being mailed today. Actually meet the new building manager for once & got officialness on my money order receipt (her initals & a stamp!).

Yesterday the USPS completely failed to deliver my order of cat tooth brush kits & failed again today. Claimed they had front door issues which was bullshit because my phone was on & it was not called. And they did not try again today. But I did get another item I was not expecting for another project I've had tinkering in my mind.

Hopefully Poofball will be feeling better soon, I'll have my groceries settled, & cleaning done & ready for Beckton on the 14th. I need a skeleton!! 

The Blue Bumb!

The hardest part of vehicle ownership is finally done. Showing up in person to transfer the title & plates. $210.50 in fees. Well, because I was a dummy & reported what was actually paid caused $188.50 in taxes...

Ahead of me at the title window was some woman helping her father? deal with what seemed like a fleet of stuff & trailers. And then an older couple came in & left while the other 2 were still going on when I realized there was a 2ND DAMN WINDOW.
They do notarize titles if you're a seller but the clerk refused to notarize mine because - I DIDN'T KNOW THE ADDRESS OF THE BUYER. Why is it anyone else can get a seller transfer notarized without a buyer but the moment I need that done the universe says "Yeah, screw that, especially YOU!"
And for some reason they didn't have the color of the van on the title? I guess that's a new thing now.
Next I need to clean out what I want to keep - someone help me pull the driver's side door panel off for the coins inside! - and then set a time for McDole Towing to come get the blue bumb. When I turned it on to get the mileage, the Check Engine light was now flashing. Yep, can't get this out of here soon enough.

Well, the Mash Kyrielight Circus Version kit isn't happening...

Hopefully good news!

Finally logged into my e2046 account after a long time to see what was up with the Mash Kyrielight Circus Version kit I had accidentally pre-ordered TWICE. Only to find out after 6 years of waiting any orders for it have finally been cancelled as of May 24th 2025. Which means now they were holding a "Cash Coupon" of $67.50 of MY money for 6 years. I tried to get half of that refunded early on but they're like "oh no, we'll hold it here & you can use it on things.. "

But with this development & me contacting them it hopefully looks like they're willing & going to return my money via PayPal!! I haven't been excited for any other kit since then & I held out hope it would get made. Plus it's been awhile since I made a kit & I've still got 3 sitting here unmade. I explained I live where space is limited & I have to watch what I bring in. Gave them my PayPal email & thanked them & looking forward to blah blah blah.

$67.50 is not chump change. I wonder if I can get that transferred back onto my card as a payment. I dunno.

May 21st...

Went downstairs yesterday to pay my last 2 bills for the month & was treated to a free supper. Someone left a thawing vacuum sealed Barbecue ham & rice thingy on a table along with a cluster of celery, 2 cans of something I did not pick up because sodium, 1 cup packet of dried milk, & 2 honking huge potatoes which in hindsite I should have grabbed 1. I ended up cutting up 1 rib of celery to heat with the ground ham (didn't see any rice) & with a baked potato cut in half (they were HUGE!!), would have served 2 people with a nice tasty filling meal. But no. Ate the ham & celery in dejected silence. But it was free & now I can cut up 1 rib of celery per serving of the crockpot recipe I got ready now. And maybe even in stuff I got sitting here. Had a good toilet moment this morning so that's good.

Placed an order for delivery today because I have needs & cat litter is one. Held off getting more eggs, apples, chocolate syrup, tomato sauce, ketchup, & the stuff for Arroz con Gandules. Among the stuff I wanted to get. A number of products showed price drops of which Walmart proudly said I saved $5.66. I think I saved more than that by not ordering a few things I still needed but can wait.

And as for Maika? She got to go home but I like to think she moved in with Cyana (as sisters!), who debuted a new look & promptly did a subathon & demonstrated just exactly how talented she is! Maika will pop up now & then... 🌴🍍

🌴🍍Ⓜ🅰ℹ🇰🅰 Ⓜ🅰LL🅾🇼🍍🌴 IS MY OSHI. ALWAYS.

Seriously sad because my favorite Vtuber streamer Maika Mallow suddenly dropped an announcement Saturday night she would be graduating from streaming & would explain things this Friday at 8 p.m. & she says it would be her last.

I really hope she auditioned or got scouted by an agency or something & she has to put this one "to bed" as the saying goes. She mentioned a Voice Reveal & I'm like what? I heard her on Ayuki's stream a few times when they rented rooms in the same house (Ayuki also streams). Because her voice & sweetness deserves more of an audience & I hope she will continue to find it.

I really hope it's not health related as she has Epilepsy & about a month ago (she's had things happen only a few times during a stream) she started a stream while playing Stray (which sadly she hasn't finished) & for about an hour she had to wait out a slight seizure to pass. It affected her concentration while reading chat comments but the fog cleared & she finished the stream just fine.

I discovered her & her friend Nyana 2 years ago during their Henya Debut watchalong on May 13, 2023. She was the only YouTube streamer covering the event so Fate seemed to have made it happen. Since then I watched her sub 1K subscriber count grow to monetization & now has over 4K on YouTube & her Twitch has at least 1,000 there, along with paid memberships both places. When she hit 1,000 on YouTube, I suggested she write a song - and finding copyright free music on YouTube, she did just that. It's become a fan favorite. I don't think I missed many streams. She became a part of my routine. Even when she moved back home & eventually started fewer daily streams.

I guess on Friday I'll find out what's been troubling her. I wish I had found her sooner but then would it hurt more now? I hope she's going to be with an agency. & then she'd return.

Not what I planned to do but all right...

So.... A friend was having problems getting his outdated WinXP netbook to connect to his Wifi & came up today to have me show him... And then I struggled with it because THANK YOU ONLINE GUIDES FOR BEING UNHELPFUL. What I was having problems with was not being able to enter the security password... As it turns out, you can if you choose WPA2-PSK. Yeah, had to learn that nugget on my own because NOTHING else I was reading mentioned that.

As soon as I had that figured out, BAM! his netbook logged on my Wifi & connected. Next was him wanting to get into his Gmail on that (I don't know why) & I told him his Google account would work. It should, right? So we eventually get the login info & password paired & try logging in on the netbook... And no bueno. Not letting us / him in. Maybe Gmail does have a separate password? I mean there was that problem of Youtubers getting malicious emails & then their channel got hacked so maybe..??

But anywho, once he has his own wifi name, security, & password from home figured out, I can get that figured in & hopefully working. After that he might have to change his Google password again...?

Hopefully when he picks up a "new" computer at a pawn shop, it's got Windows 10 at least, decent specs & a solid state drive of some type. Right now, I'm tasked with cleaning the keyboard because otherwise it works reasonably well & needs a currently WinXP supported browser.

Corn Grits (Polenta) Bread is Not Easy

Tonight I made a loaf of Corn Grits Bread from the recipe book I got so long ago from friends. This was not an easy loaf to pull off.

1st, I had to cook the grits aka Polenta. I could do it traditional Southern way in just water but I thought why not add 20 grams of dry milk powder (enough to mix 1 cup of milk) & see how it goes. And it was fine. Only thing is I used the pot I had used for Spanish Rice & it had dried out sitting around unwashed & the grits picked up the flavor (& cleaned it off!).

Medium loaf used 1.5 cups of freshly cooked (warm) grits. Then I adjusted the rest. 1.5 tablespoons margarine was reduced to 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (saved from a fresh mozzarella container) since the grits already had added margarine at the end. I wasn't going to add more salt since the grits had some added when it was cooked but after a kneading I added 1 teaspoon. 1 tablespoon sugar & then only 1 teaspoon yeast.

Flour was supposed to be 2 & 1/4 cups but after watching it knead up & needing 1/2 cup of warm water & then still hadn't set up a dough ball after the 1st kneading cycle, I kept adding small amounts & restarting until I got minimally tacky (like pizza dough) & probably would do well. I had to restart at least 4 more times. So maybe this recipe needs 2 & 3/4 cups? These recipes always seem to need more flour.

And I was right! Went out to check & got a dense loaf perfectly shaped & didn't collapse. Since the grits & oil had extra seasoning, I'm interested in how this loaf tastes.

Sailor Moon Cybercel Cards

JUST ARRIVED practically MINUTES AGO!!!

SailorMoon Cybercel Series 1? Cards!!! Practically overnight shipping! Got a great price on them, too, as a Pre-Order after waiting a bunch of months. Unopened for now but I plan on getting video...

I saw places charging $7 a PACK & $120 for a BOX & I'm stingy - I certainly paid Nowhere Near those prices! The place who did me a solid will get future business from me. This is up there with my $115 Hatsune Miku Stomp pedal!!

While there is one Hyper Rare card, I don't expect 1 box to get one. I don't have the money to buy a case. I love collecting Sailor Moon cards & even have a few cards from 1 translucent set I can't seem to find more of... I hadn't collected any in seems like 15 years. And then there's that one cancelled Topps set from 1997... 

とにかく, I waited for this & it kept getting pushed back until FINALLY!!

Productive "Computer Shtuff"

I finally sat down with Altirra, the Atari 8-bit Emulator for Windows & managed to manipulate files & disk images & now have it as a booting system loading up the sequencer software I used years ago on my Atari 8-bit for songs from Pocahontas. 

With the help of SpartaDOS, I finally got a directory listing of all the songs I put on that jukebox disk so you can see what songs I did with it. They all have lyrics synchronized to the music & NOW I CAN FINALLY DO STEREO MIXES! A stereo mix of Colors of the Wind is already in the works (mostly just separating a sound channel or 2 into left & right) because now I can choose which POKEY sound channels to play. So when I finally plop those tracks in Audacity, I can figure it out. I'll be checking more floppies because I want to see how much of my efforts from 30 years ago I can recover. 

HOWEVER, I got Antic Music Processor set up for a special project I wanted to do - though I'll need to refresh my memory on how to use the software! I nearly completely forgot! It has been 22 years since I last did this (Mom losing the house to a 2nd mortgage foreclosure in 2003 really put a cramp on things & I never managed to get it set up again...) so I have some information to find. But I have the sheet music I need already!

Finally getting to do "Computer Stuff" today was productive. I found out my A8 Pi Pico cartridge survived my best efforts to kill it when I soldered it together weeks ago & thanks to videos I found was able to set it up & looks like the onboard flash memory is working.  While it has 16 megabytes for that & the entire Atari 8-bit library could easily fit on there several times over, its main use is as a cartridge emulator. So even any size single load binary file game would run with it. Disk images not so much.

So anywho, I hope I have more data recovered in the coming weeks. I need to read up on configuring SpartaDOS X 4.50.

1st post for 2025

I'm glad I got out yesterday & did stuff while temperatures were above freezing which made it tolerable to do so. Officially placed the Previews order for 4 books & then got Groceries at Walfart so I could use the measely $25 United food card...

Eggs were decimated. This is what you get for not vaccinating chickens for the flu.

 

Also the cheap canned Boyardee pasta was nearly sold out... I watched a Vtuber from Poland try a taste test of Boyardee products & she was not impressed... & in fact sickened from the flavor... Oh my. I bought 3 sample products to check if my tastes have changed & even got my favorite Beefaroni.

Also found Hawaiian Punch changed the Piña Colada White Water Wave name to Coconut Wave? Ummm this isn't a change anyone asked for or needed made. SO WHY?

General Mills seems to be doing Old Throwback cereals & they dug out from 1961! the designs for Twinkles cereal. This reminds me of Remilia Nephys' favorite Honey Stars which I had been trying to get but haven't found anything cheap enough to consider. And in the Markdown shelf I got a $2.50 box of Extra. Extra what? I don't know.

The Cat Sand shelf was also nearly empty!!! WHAT THE HELL. So I had to settle for the Lightweight fragrance free stuff. It costs more & doesn't last as long as the regular but I needed more right now.

Couldn't find catnip & forgot the little can of sliced olives for making Puerto Rican Rice..  among other things but mainly covered my list. I didn't buy any Valentine's candy (no special KitKats) nor kids class Valentine's cards (no Monster High).

Everything went mostly as expected from taking out my trash & cat crap to getting an electric cart some selfish asshole took outside the store & left it in the rain!!! for me to swipe off the water collected in the seat so I could sit on it. YOU BET I SAT ON THAT COLD WET SEAT. 100% charge & I took it in.

Also found I could buy 2 Imperial 15 ounce tubs of margarine for 30 ounces & save $1.09 by not buying the 45 ounce.

Also Maintenance left notes asking people to drip their pipes & open the cabinet doors for under the sink because of the cold for the next few days. I also hope the heating doesn't go out.