Silly Site o' the Day

White Rabbits, and welcome to the Month of Celebration at the Riggs Residence! Tomorrow's my 66th birthday, where I plan to spend the morning at the Javits Center helping out at Special Olympics New York's Winter Games, then catching the bus home at Bryant Park after having a look around their open-air shops and, if I'm lucky, perhaps catching a bite with The Firesign Theatre's Phil Proctor... but I get ahead of myself. It's still today, and work went fine and all the bills are paid and it's been gloomy much of the day so I feel like I've never quite woken up. Anyway, our silver anniversary is Monday, then Robin's birthday is Wednesday, Chanukah starts the following evening, my last day of work this month is 22 December before the firm shuts down for our winter break, and somewhere in all that I have to buy holiday cards and write our annual Riggs Residence Roundup. Possibly on Sunday. For now, I just want to look through the 2024 Fat Cat Calendar...

Silly Site o' the Day

When I got home last night I found a new commuter card waiting for me. The contactless chip thingie in the card it replaced hasn't worked in about a month and I've been using the "old fashioned" MetroCard. Which of course came in after tokens and coins went out, which in turn had supplanted the good old "drop a nickel in the slot and you can ride" days. Simpler times, where you didn't need to register something in umpteen different places to make sure it operated correctly. Guess what I spent my morning doing? OMNY has finally said I'm good to go with this contactless nonsense and the card worked on my homeward bound commute (the second time I tried; I still can't get the hang of contactless stuff on the bus). Maybe I'm just cranky because I'm an old lady having another birthday in two days, but considering the alternative I'm still happy to be around, happy to be vital at the office (which I was today, but two consecutive Manhattan work days have me exhausted), and happy in general most of the time, unlike these paperback cover parodies.

Silly Site o' the Day

So, so bitter cold this morning as I traipsed to the bus stop with my laptop. Once I got to the office things were fine, and the day productive, but going out for my usual poke bowl at lunchtime was challenging! Still, a very good socializing day, got a lot done, and didn't have to schlep my laptop home as I'll be going in again tomorrow. Phil Proctor from The Firesign Theatre is also in town but I'm not sure we'll be getting together this time. At least I sort of feel his vibes, and enjoy the photos he's posting on Facebook, although he hasn't gotten into oil bottle pareidolia just yet.

Silly Site o' the Day

I'm definitely not ready to go back into the office, but I need to attend a meeting tomorrow and cover some space for guests on Thursday so I have little choice. I haven't felt warm all day, had to run the space heater in the home office most of the workday. But I've showered now and feel much better, and will be layering like crazy tomorrow morning to go out in the freezing-to-me temps. I had a very nice talk today with my interim boss, who's a big Star Wars fan, so I present this in his honor from Wil Wheaton's page.

Silly Site o' the Day

Let there be light! During this time of year when darkness encroaches ever earlier, we finally got the kitchen fluorescents to work properly. Robin changed out both of them this afternoon and voila!, I don't think the room has been that bright in years. And to think, it was just dim bulbs, installed by people working for equally dim bulbs... well, it's not their fault they decided against buying new lights. No wait, it probably is. In any case, we can see again! Now my pareidolia curiosity has been roused:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

It was brisk and dank outside this morning when we finally got around to shopping, but we got most of it (despite the horrible Sunday drivers and supermarket patrons; of course I masked the whole time) and were back home by 12:45 to relax for the rest of the day. Busy work week coming up, when I'm schlepping into Manhattan two days in a row then again on Saturday, where I'm spending my 66th birthday in the company of Special Olympics athletes, so I wanted to make sure I was all detoxed and ready to go, and I feel like this four-day break has afforded me that. No further need for a wearable plush turtle shell!

Silly Site o' the Day

Way too cold to go shopping today, so I spent the day on my usual Saturday household chores, as well as starting to plan for our year-end things like our annual Riggs Residence Roundup newsletter and holiday card prep (I've counted how many I need to buy, probably tomorrow). I was a little disappointed I didn't do justice to Small Business Saturday, but it'll just be SB Sunday instead. Should I shop for oil bottles or will the pareidolia get to me?

Silly Site o' the Day

I've decided enforced inactivity is the only way I'm going to get through all my little aches and pains and gastrointestinal issues, and today my system finally seems to be relaxing, give or take a half dozen trips to the "reading room." My daily glucose numbers are also down, as I attempt not to eat after 9 PM and to have a fairly light dinner if I have a big lunch (today's dinner was ramen noodle soup, one of my go-to's). As the large table was already out to hold the Thanksgiving stuff yesterday, today Robin put on an extra tablecloth and I began decorating with our usual holiday season tchatchkes. Because we have tons of time before the new year, I feel like I'm getting a nice jump on things. Speaking of calendars, have you ordered your Social Justice Kittens calendar yet?

Silly Site o' the Day

This was the first Thanksgiving since the pandemic that we spent by ourselves, and I'm actually thankful for that considering my need to detox and recuperate from the last couple of weeks. Everything in the holiday meal turned out terrific except the store-bought butternut squash, which was summarily disposed of, and I got in two rounds of washing up, made infinitely easier by our over-the-counter dish drain that seems to dry everything in no time at all. And because it was just the two of us, there was none of this foolishness:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

I was able to log off at 3 PM today but, as I had all my work done at least a half hour before that, I decided to make two Thanksgiving dishes today to have two fewer things to prepare tomorrow. Both the cranberry sauce and Brussels sprouts came out great! So I'm psyched for the holiday and the upcoming four-day break from work. I'll be laying out the holiday table with food tomorrow, and with wintery holiday stuff the day after. I might even have some fake gift boxes.