Birthday Plans

Jan. 22nd, 2026 11:36 am
garnigal: (Default)
[personal profile] garnigal
I've got a big birthday this year and finally bit the bullet and booked a vacation for that time. I'm joining my parents in Portugal for a week in March. They have an apartment for a month, and they invited us long ago, but I finally pulled the trigger this week. It's just me and them, so that will be nice. I actually fly out the evening of my birthday, so that's a bit annoying, but I'll have the previous week.

Now I just need to get the stuff together that I need. My biggest concern is making sure my phone works. I'm flying westjet to dublin and RyanAir to Faro, so I need the RyanAir app, but I"m not sure about connectivity (eSim, roaming, etc). I won't need charging stuff since Mom will take all that.

Just a bit more thinking to do!
[personal profile] cosmolinguist

I did an interview that might become part of a radio piece on e-bikes as pavement obstacles for blind people today.

He'd done some reconnaissance before I showed up and had found the most e-bikes I have ever seen in one place, taking up most of a pedestrianized side road. We came around a corner to this nest of chaos and all I could think of was "If we were in a science fiction movie about aliens invading the Earth, and the aliens were Lime bikes, I feel like this would be their mothership."

He pointed his microphone at me and said "Say that again." Ha! I gotta watch my goofy metaphors better.

So if you ever hear someone on the radio say they found the giant egg all the Lime bikes hatched from...uh, that's me.

Cleaning out a hoarder apartment...

Jan. 22nd, 2026 09:03 am
which_chick: (Default)
[personal profile] which_chick
I've been cleaning out a hoarder apartment. I have feelings about this.

Read more? )

Oooooh...SO CLOSE

Jan. 22nd, 2026 02:00 pm
[syndicated profile] cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

So do bakers still get points if you can at least tell what their cakes were *supposed* to say?

 

Or...not.

 

The period is how you know that new hairstyle is really working for you, Raquel. Honest.

 

Excellent advice for those pesky potty-training years.

 

Is this like an "I am legion" thing? 'Cuz if so, I'd rather you roar over there, if it's all the same to all of you.

 

And for bonus points, let's see if you can tell what these last two words were supposed to say:

Not sure? Then here's a hint: it's the same thing the last word on THIS cake was supposed to say:

But hey, who's counting?

 

Thanks to Shimon M., Raquel, Rebecca D., Jennifer B., Tom M., & Shane A. for the close falls.

*****

P.S. Here's a (hilarious) reminder that English is almost as confusing as these cakes:

P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

goodbyebird: IWTV: Armand is giving you an amused look, chin on one hand, "Oh? really? tell me more." (IWTV tell me more)
[personal profile] goodbyebird
Like, this really shouldn't work? But now it's an Armand song? I can't make it not be! )

Also, a fun game some yt channels play is picking a deck for each of the characters in a show they love, and to me Mio Im's Tarot screams Armand. It's got something to do with the sparse nature of it, the limited bone/dust gray palette, obviously all the bones hehe.

serophobia

Jan. 22nd, 2026 07:07 am
prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
[personal profile] prettygoodword
serophobia (ser-uh-FOH-bee-uh) - n., fear of, dislike of, or prejudice against people testing positive for a given pathogen, especially HIV.


So commonly HIV that many dictionaries give only that in their definition. Coined from sero-, combining form of serum (from Latin serum, whey) + phobia, fear of (from Ancient Greek phóbos, fear). And some day I need to dive into that whey > serum connection in more detail.

---L.
spikedluv: (winter: mittens by raynedanser)
[personal profile] spikedluv
I switched my morning around and left home an hour later than usual. In that hour I put a chuck roast in the crock pot and did some online fandom things. I went with the Cinnamon Orange tea again this morning. Downtown I hit Price Chopper, then went to my chiropractic appointment.

THEN I went to McD’s and got some writing done; ~700 words, which is less than the last couple days, but it’s not nothing, so \o/

I picked the dogs up on my way home (my winter schedule for picking up the dogs has been different than usual because I tend to not want to go back out and get them if it’s cold or snowy), where I put groceries away and walked them (I had on so many layers!).

I prepared lunch for all of us (including Midnight who was howling for more food – he’ll sometimes eat very little on a day, then be starving the next day, and apparently blaming me for it), though I planned to take mine with me.

I hit the post office and filled my gas tank on the way to visit mom (where I ate my lunch). When I got home I took the dogs for another walk (and fed Midnight yet again; apparently today was a day when he wanted all the food *g*).

I also did a load of laundry, hand-washed dishes (why does it seem like dirty dishes just sort of keep appearing?), checked on Midnight’s dry food and water dishes (this is where I normally say ‘scooped kitty litter’, but there was nothing to scoop, probably because yesterday was a day he didn’t eat much), and paid a bill online. When Pip got home we went for another walk.

One nice thing was I received a set of tea bag coasters that I’d ordered. With sunflowers on them!! (I tried to link to them, but apparently they are sold out so it won’t even link to the item so I can show you.)

Temps started out at 9.0(F) and dropped exactly 2 degrees to 7.0 before I left the house. The high I saw was 25.5. We had a tiny bit of snow late afternoon, big fat flakes, but not enough to accumulate, thankfully.

The bad news is that I’ve been concentrating on the low temperatures we’ll be having (overnight lows in the negatives and highs in single digits) and Pip informed me that we’re in for a big snow storm Sunday. 3-5" during the day, 3-5" overnight, and an additional 1-3" Monday. DNW!!!


Mom Update:

Mom was doing okay when I saw her. She was tired. And cold. She used a heavy blanket when she’s in her recliner, but I suggested she turn her heat up. (She has it set at 70, but her living room felt cool even to me, and I generally overheat.) She ate lunch while I was there. I got her mail and wrote out a check that I put back in the mailbox, stripped her bed, and brought home her laundry. I also opened one of her protein drinks, because I’m handy that way. *g*

She’s looking forward to company tonight, a woman she knows from the village who just recently found out that mom was sick. She called her yesterday to ask if she could come visit. So that’ll be nice for her.

It's always more complicated

Jan. 22nd, 2026 12:00 pm
rmc28: (cuihc)
[personal profile] rmc28

It's been a whole adventure watching Heated Rivalry go mainstream (for once I can claim I was a fan before it was cool!). I turned on Radio 2 in a hire car on Tuesday evening and the presenter was talking about it. Half the UK ice hockey clubs are making social media posts riffing off the show, or at minimum using music from it in their updates.

But it's also more complicated. Zach Sullivan, one of the very very few out queer professional male hockey players in the world, made an Instagram post a few days ago, about how conflicted he feels about the show. Well worth a read if you have time. Heated Rivalry is a romantic fantasy, the hockey aspects are often wrong, and I agree with Zach that I'm not at all sure the enthusiasm over the show is making things better for closeted male players right now. (I hope it will in the long term, but I worry about the harm right now.)

Also, I am developing a visceral loathing for the phrase "boy aquarium" for hockey rinks.

  1. it's gross
  2. it's not just boys (men) who play ice hockey
  3. please stop sexualising the spaces where people play and get changed

That last point: I play with two mixed (male-dominated) teams, I get changed in the same room as the men, and because my teams are not gross and the changing room is not a sexualised space, I feel safe doing so. If I changed separately, I would miss out on a whole load of the team connection and conversation, all the stuff that creates a team out of a bunch of people who turn up in the same place each week. So I stay and change with my team, and it's not a big deal, and I don't want people to make it a big deal.

community thursday (jan. 15-21)

Jan. 22nd, 2026 11:49 am
tozka: title character sitting with a friend (Default)
[personal profile] tozka

Welcome back to another Community Thursday! Original Community Thursday info here, if you're interested and want to participate, too.

Posted/Commented

New-to-me Comms

  • [community profile] vkotd -- Visual Kei of the day! A song-sharing comm focused on Japanese rock bands
  • [community profile] fanmix_monthly -- recently-opened fanmix community
  • [community profile] pkmnkinkmeme -- a new Pokemon Kink Meme comm!

Interesting Comm Posts

I Am Now Puck.

Jan. 22nd, 2026 11:51 am
rionaleonhart: goes wrong: unparalleled actor robert grove looks handsomely at the camera. (unappreciated in my own time)
[personal profile] rionaleonhart
In my headlong, desperate fall into the Goes Wrong fandom, I've discovered a Twitter account for the character of Robert Grove, with the wonderful username of @robertgoodactor, operating mainly between 2013 and 2015. The account has apparently been mentioned in past programmes for the Goes Wrong plays, so it's presumably official!

Twitter is now a barely accessible mess, and I'm not sure how much longer it'll be possible to read Robert's tweets, so I've dug out my favourites and reproduced them in this entry!


Official Twitter posts from Robert Grove. )


Tracking down all the scattered Cornley Drama Society lore continues to be a challenge, but I love that every character detail I'm rewarded with is absolutely stupid.

While I'm noting down semi-obscure Cornley lore, here's a short exchange I stumbled across in the script for the stage version of Peter Pan Goes Wrong, in which Chris and Robert try to show each other up in front of the audience while introducing the play:

Chris: This generous cash injection has meant that tonight's production will certainly outshine our rather underfunded Christmas show that Robert directed: Jack and the Bean.
Robert: In one of Chris's productions, due to an ill-timed haircut, Rapunzel had to be imprisoned in a bungalow.
Chris: Indeed, that was almost as bad as when Robert insisted on using a real cat in his production of Puss in Boots, which became known amongst the company as 'Puss Who Was Occasionally in Boots, but Often Refused to Wear His Boots, and Then Bit a Child'.

book haul, january 2026

Jan. 22nd, 2026 11:32 am
tozka: Set of 3 green books (books green set of 3)
[personal profile] tozka
The rain let up yesterday so I went into town to do some thrifting! I spotted some interesting knick-knaocks, like a tiny Limoges decorative bowl and some bone china stuff but nothing that wowed me (or that I wanted to haul around until I get back to the US, for that matter). I DID find a decent book selection, though! I got 5 books for £17/$22 USD, which I think is pretty good.

A stack of 5 books on a kitchen table


Titles:
1. Viva South America by Oliver Balch
2. Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving (comes with a soundtrack CD!)
3. Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
4. I Planted Trees by Richard St. Barber Baker
5. Peregrinations of a Pariah by Flora Tristan, translated by Jean Hawkes

I'm pretty sure I have at least one of these books as an ebook already, but whatever. Now I need to track down a CD player...

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