These are photos from months ago when it snowed.
I can’t even remember the exact sequence of events. I think it snowed and then a day later we had an ice storm.
Or maybe I’m confused from December.
It’s pretty. The steps are from me running out to feed the birds.
I think this was one of the neighbor cats, probably Noah, sneaking through hoping to find a spot without snow.
I had a whole robot themed post planned. Originally there were 3 robots but I can’t remember the third one.
These are robots that deliver food at Oregon State. They are really cute. I loved how they waited to cross the street.
This is Jarvis the barista who make drinks at Muji in downtown Portland. I tried to make a video of it for my robot themed post but I pressed all the wrong buttons because I am an old and technology is hard. I did not get a successful video of him making me my drink.
Clearly, I am not ready for the robots. Or maybe I need them more than ever.
When Dad was in the hospital he kept asking for a drink.
We got the idea to bring him some mock gin and tonics. Even the nurses were in on it and if we couldn’t be there, we would leave the can and they would bring a cup of ice and make him his drink.
He eventually complained about the fake drink and asked for a real one.
We resisted for awhile but when he was feeling better we brought him real (weak!) gin and tonics — mostly tonic and a wedge of lime. Every afternoon I would show up at skilled nursing with a mini-cooler so I could give him his happy hour drink.
When we were sick and couldn’t get over there he called me once and asked if this was a dry county because no one would bring him a drink.
We knew all the reasons it wasn’t the best idea because he was taking medications and so forth. But also he’s 92, he wanted a drink, and it made him really happy.
This was the little container we re-used to make the drinks.
Pen name was given the opportunity to turn Heartbeat Braves into an audiobook using digital narration.
I understand all the concerns about using digital narrators. I would LOVE to record my books with Indigenous voices but I don’t have the skills or resources to make that happen.
I wrung my hands and thought about it for quite some time but decided to give it a shot.
I keep reading the instructions and I guess it’s only available via the Apple Books app:
I am listening to it right now. Madison does a good job but here are a few funny mispronunciations like when Linda tells them to polish their resumes and she says Polish, like of the country Poland. I also hear some typos and awkward sentences.
But I think it came out great. I hope people who prefer to consume their romance via audiobooks will give it a try.
This was back in December on Christmas Eve when we had the ice storm.
I was worried about my apple and fig trees but everything did fine.
According to my dashboard I have over 3000 posts and in my dreams I would like to go through them and clean up some weird formatting that’s happened over the years. Maybe fix some titles and dead links. Maybe just delete stuff.
Not a priority. I’d like to clean out the garage, too. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed. haha.
I left the pumpkins on the deck until I had a chance to deal with them only November was chaotic and all the weekends filled up and then we had the Dad-tastrophe right after Thanksgiving and I forgot about them.
Then it froze.
They did not like that.
When I had a chance I chopped them up and threw them in the garden so the critters could have a snack.
I have all kinds of photos from the end of last year and beginning of this year that I’m going to try to post over the next couple of weeks.
These are socks that my sister made for me. They are so pretty I can’t bear the idea of wearing them.
She told me to wear them.
But also as I have aged I realize that when you save things what are you saving them for? Like a pretty candle sitting there for 10 years and starts to look grey and droopy and I realize I should just light the candle and enjoy it.
Another pair of tiny socks she made for one of the bebes:
Here are some pretty tulips:
Decades ago my mother-in-law gave me a bundt pan and also a recipe called Black Magic Cake which I have previously posted about here.
This recipe has been a huge hit every time I make it. It’s dense, very chocolatey and freezes well.
The reason I post about it again is that, the original recipe calls for 8 – 2.05 oz Milky Way bars. I’m sure there are places to get big candy bars but not at my usual grocery store. So I had to buy and unwrap a whole bag of itty bitty bars.
I have used other chocolates to fill out the recipe — various odds and ends of baker chocolate and half-full bags of chocolate chips I have in my cupboard.
It’s never gone wrong.
I bought some of those vacuum storage bags. You know when you buy something expecting it to change your life but it turns out disappointing in execution?
These are giant zipper lock bags where you vacuum out all the air and it makes more space.
I had envisioned easily-managed stackable containers of my winter clothes and sheets but instead they look like these blobs that don’t fit together. They are also heavier than you’d think.
I’m sure there’s a youtube video with tips by someone named Tammy that would help me out but I have a lot of chores to do and need to get this particular thing done and don’t want to get dragged some rabbit hole of oversold storage improvement tips.
I did get everything in the closet but I’m pretty sure this is the same stuff I’ve crammed in without.
I have to label it because by fall I will forget which sheets go with what and where the pillow cases are.
Here are the tulips right next to the front curb.
Back in the days when I was buying bag after bag of bulbs, I had to get creative finding places to put them.
Now look at this. It looks like someone came by and cut off the flowers.
It doesn’t make sense. If you’re going to steal a flower, wouldn’t you cut it at the stem?
But also who would come into someone’s yard and steal tulips in the days when everyone has a doorbell camera?
I though maybe an animal came by and ate them but wouldn’t that make a bigger mess? Another mystery.
Pretty tulips by the front door.
Anybody remember a long time ago when the tulip bandit clipped some of my good tulips? You have to scroll down to April 18 — I can’t bear to go through the gymnastics to figure out how to link to that post by itself.
