Today's Smoothie

Oct. 22nd, 2025 10:45 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Note to self: do not put red grapes in a green smoothie. Red + green = brown. :/ It still tastes good, but it is not the beautiful jade-green that we usually get.

We use the Alan's Going Green Smoothie. We don't use the jalapeño or cashews. Sometimes we use a kiwi instead of a lime. Today we used a handful of pea shoots instead of spinach, so there's a pea flavor alongside the lime.
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
and since we have a ton of computer mice (mouses?) already I just swapped it out. But I still was bugged by the ton of crud that I know was embedded in my old mouse, so before I tossed it I took it apart to clean the scrollwheel.

So much cat hair, much of it felted, and I'm honestly surprised the scrollwheel was functioning at all. But it was so cheaply made that putting it back together would've been a hassle and a half, so I'm glad I had the sense to just replace it rather than depending on my own repair skills!

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conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
Smart beds flipped out during the AWS outage, and so did their sleepy owners

1. Why does a bed need to be smart?
2. Why does everything have to be a subscription nowadays?
3. Why didn't they design the damn things to just be normal beds if cut off from the internet?

Seriously, you couldn't have written this 30 years ago, nobody would ever have accepted the premise! I'd say something about fools and their money, but....

**************


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Photography

Oct. 22nd, 2025 05:53 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Córdoba -- Festival of the Patios

In addition to being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Córdoba also appears on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list for its Festival of the Patios. Held each spring, the festival celebrates the tradition of decorating the patios or courtyards of the homes in the historic center of the city with flowers and other plants. During the Festival, these patios are open to the public, to show off the beauty of these spaces.

The pictures come from later in the season, not the festival itself, but are still beautiful.

Are you looking for a theme to make your small town stand out? Or a theme for a spring event that isn't Easter? Consider a patio festival! Celebrate the beauty of small gardens on patios, balconies, front porches, etc. Get your local florists and garden shops to join the fun with special displays or sales.  Throw in a plant / seed swap for houseplants, garden plants that are customarily divided or planted in spring, local landraces of flowers or vegetables, and so on.
kaberett: A series of phrases commonly used in academic papers, accompanied by humourous "translations". (science!)
[personal profile] kaberett

One of the things I'm sure I've come across repeatedly in the books I've read so far is the idea that a very high proportion of Chronic Pain Cases are down to either back pain or headache. This is important because back pain genuinely is something that has a massive nociplastic component, especially in the lower back, that is unequivocally worth treating (despite myself I remain grudgingly impressed with the Boulder Back Pain Study; and, to be clear, I do myself have a grumbly section of lower back following an injury a few years ago that I am practising all my Theories on!).

This is an Important To Me framing device because my point is that treatments aimed purely at nociplastic pain/central sensitisation cannot be expected to work as well for people with ongoing or recurrent tissue damage/injury... but why it's worth using some of these approaches anyway, with the understanding of the actual scope of what effects to hope for or expect. Which means I'd like to know where they're GETTING those numbers from.

Mindfulness for Health )

The Way Out (... long, bonus tangential rant) )

The Painful Truth )

... aaaaaaand it is now definitely past bedtime so I'll finish Revisiting Books tomorrow. (My notes on Explain Pain, consistent with it being generally competent, are that it doesn't go anywhere near talking about what The Most Common Forms Of Chronic Pain are; might have a quick flip through when I'm next in the same place as my copy. Also couldn't find anything in Touch. Will be revisiting the current book, Ouch!, in the morning...)

Birdfeeding

Oct. 22nd, 2025 02:37 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny, breezy, and cool.

I fed the birds. I've seen a few sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds.

10/22/25 -- I installed the larger of the two wormstones beside the barrel garden. First I picked a spot, then I cleared the weeds. I dug into the ground a little so that the stone would lie closer to the surface. I had to move a few tulip bulbs that turned up there. Then I put the stone in place and pushed the soil back around the edges. \o/

10/22/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

10/22/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

10/22/25 -- I installed the second wormstone by the barrel garden.

10/22/25 -- I planted 10 'Flaming Beauties' tulips around the barrel garden. I still have 10 left. These are streaked tulips so they are yellow/red, purple/white, etc.

10/22/25 -- I planted the rest of the 'Flaming Beauties' in the tulip bed.

As it is almost suppertime, I am done for the night.

...p...p-p-PENIS?!!!

Oct. 21st, 2025 10:56 pm
azurelunatic: melting chocolate teapot (418)
[personal profile] azurelunatic
Today Belovedest had to bust the teenagers for playing "the penis game" in the library.

[You say the word increasingly loudly, in turns, until someone loses the game by being told to cut it out or being asked to leave.]

The weather's getting colder, but I have evolved myself an outfit to wear outdoors for lounging while the weather's in the high 50s F -- my slightly ratty plush bathrobe underneath my much more windproof corduroy floor length duster. And the ta'al fingerless mgloves Mama knitted for me, in rainbow stripes. They're just the thing for keeping my hands warm while I'm on the phone.

I've discovered I do enjoy cauliflower "wings", even though I don't enjoy chicken wings.

The scooter has arrived. I am plotting how best to bedazzle it. It does have its own USB power outlet! It also has head and tail lights. It's better for approaching counters than the wheelchair, since the tiller is so close to me.

[personal profile] norabombay points out that given all the poorly supervised international visitors who have been in and out of the White House, they're going to have to take it down to the studs when they refit it for #48 to use. So the general devastation in the East Wing is small potatoes as far as outrage fodder. And anywhere that the last major update was 1947-ish must really need some yanking out of the century of the fruitbat.

My legs are doing better. In part this is because I stuck ibuprofen in my nightly pill box, since I'd been waking up with aching legs and shouting knees pretty consistently.

Medication: the medication definitely has some activity. The main activity seems to be that my appetite has been fading in and out of "did we recently have chemo?!" mode. I'm tempted to give myself a week off every few weeks.

Makeup: currently waiting on a liquid formulation of the eyeshadow that promised to match the eyeliner, because the color is fantastic and I want it in a wide brush. I guess the powder can work for blending it out. (The powder just does not want to cooperate and layer on thick enough to get the color shift effect, even with a wet brush.) My skin continues to behave itself better than my ability to use foundation; there are only a few spots where I want to color correct if I'm doing Full Battle Makeup.

Games: keeping up with all the Gems of War events is sometimes tiring, but it does make winding down my brain at night much easier than other things I could be doing.

Perfume: went through my massive perfume spreadsheet and filled in the formulation for all the BPAL (which is the same except for that one spray). Cracked myself up at some of the descriptions I've left. One particular exceedingly long-lasting one
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Mad Science

Oct. 22nd, 2025 12:27 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Scientists say dimming the sun could spark global chaos

Researchers warn that real-world solar geoengineering would be far more unpredictable and risky than models suggest.

Scientists are taking the once-radical concept of dimming the sun through stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) seriously, but a Columbia University team warns that reality is far messier than models suggest. Their study reveals how physical, geopolitical, and economic constraints could derail even the best-intentioned attempts to cool the planet. From unpredictable monsoon disruptions to material shortages and optical inefficiencies, every step introduces new risks.


WARNING: Do not practice mad science on whole planet!

Cuddle Party

Oct. 22nd, 2025 12:08 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Everyone needs contact comfort sometimes. Not everyone has ample opportunities for this in facetime. So here is a chance for a cuddle party in cyberspace. Virtual cuddling can help people feel better.

We have a
cuddle room that comes with fort cushions, fort frames, sheets for draping, and a weighted blanket. A nest full of colorful egg pillows sits in one corner. There is a basket of grooming brushes, hairbrushes, and styling combs. A bin holds textured pillows. There is a big basket of craft supplies along with art markers, coloring pages, and blank paper. The kitchen has a popcorn machine. Labels are available to mark dietary needs, recipe ingredients, and level of spiciness. Here is the bathroom, open to everyone. There is a lawn tent and an outdoor hot tub. Bathers should post a sign for nude or clothed activity. Come snuggle up!


Enjoy a feast for Halloween, Samhain, All Saints Day, Dia de los Muertos, or whatever you prefer...

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NaNoWriMo

Oct. 21st, 2025 10:50 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Here's a list of NaNoWriMo replacements.  These are good options if you're fed up with the old NaNoWriMo.  However, plenty of people are still doing that, so if you have enjoyed it, you can just keep writing a novel in November.

Looking for other activities?  [community profile] goals_on_dw has lists of Writing and Art activities that include November options.

Today's Adventures

Oct. 21st, 2025 10:20 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
We went up to Champaign today.

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E is 20 and one day now!

Oct. 21st, 2025 10:24 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
It's wrong and bad and wrong and I don't like it. She was little just yesterday! Now she is not little, and her sibling is even less little, and I just don't understand how that happened.

Happy birthday to her, I guess.
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
told me that one of them, the friendliest, died today. Poor baby. The person who was supposed to trap them hasn't been in touch, apparently, so I'll talk to some people.

*********


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Soup Season

Oct. 21st, 2025 10:27 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett

I have, today, made my first Soup of the autumn: carrot and leek and celery and a couple of potatoes for good measure (and I then added frozen peas to my portion, because I like them cold and not at all cooked and definitely not reheated repeatedly over the course of a week). Bread and cheese, fruit to follow. I didn't manage Monday Morning Soup Ritual this week, as you can tell from the fact that it's Tuesday, but. Soup.

Some other bits and pieces: I have reached the stage of Squash Week where I have more recipes I want to make than I have squash with which to make them (... and one spaghetti squash) (for which I have at least some open EatYourBooks tabs). I hit refresh in my Oxfam tab aaaaaand the sale has cycled around to 30% off 3+ books. I have a chilli order ready to go as soon as my new debit card arrives OR I get over myself and see whether the credit card is actually behaving. There is a batch of onions caramelising in the Instant Pot. The current pain book is abruptly unexpectedly absorbing -- it's much more Sociology Of Pain than I'd quite been expecting, but it's potentially building to making at least some of the argument I want to from a refreshingly different angle to everything else I've come across in my background reading so far, and in the meantime in spite of my frustrations with it it's prompting lots of Useful Thoughts.

And I am wearing my Seasonal Leggings (courtesy of Mardy Bum, findable primarily on Facebook, or Instagram for a bit of an idea) and my Extremely Enthusiastic Slippers, like so. Read more... )

Dear book character:

Oct. 19th, 2025 01:11 am
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
You apparently are flabbergasted that two of your students have asked you not to call CPS on one of them. "I would never do that! Why is that your first thought!"

Well, maybe it's their first thought because you have a moral and legal responsibility to inform the authorities if you know that children are being as badly neglected as your nephew and his sisters are? I mean, if you wanted to solve this without getting a social worker involved, you had four years in which to do that.

I'm just saying, that might be why both of them thought you'd do that. Because that was what you were supposed to do, and shame on you for instead choosing to do nothing for so long. You are not the hero of this story, no matter what the author seems to think.

****************


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Birdfeeding

Oct. 21st, 2025 01:09 pm
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today is mostly sunny and cool.

I fed the birds.  I've seen some sparrows and house finches.

I put out water for the birds. 

sign of the season

Oct. 21st, 2025 11:26 am
twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
[personal profile] twistedchick
I was going absolutely insane, trying to figure out which of my 50-odd tabs was playing holiday music. Nothing showed up on the tab list. Finally I hit command-option-escape, to list what was open, and discovered that the very nice holiday advent calendar a friend sent me had decided to serenade me. I shut it down; sanity restored.

Color Pooling

Oct. 21st, 2025 01:03 am
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
When you craft with variegated yarn, it can cause color pooling. Some people dislike this, but planned pooling may be used to create fancy designs without switching yarn.  A friend tipped me to some websites for it.  If you'd like to play with the concept there are many online colourpooling generators/planning tools: https://magicneedles.in/blogs/guide-more/what-is-planned-pooling and https://mathgrrl.com/crochet-color-pooling/ are both great, and https://plannedpooling.com/ is the original.

I have a bajillion tabs open....

Oct. 18th, 2025 12:50 am
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly
and they're pretty much all fanfic right now? I've clearly been falling behind.

(Don't ask how long this has been the situation, just do not ask.)

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