DC highlights [travel, food, art]

2025-Aug-14, Thursday 12:19 pm
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[personal profile] rebeccmeister
We've reached the middle of August, so it's basically Panic Time for fall teaching prep. That means, less time blogging, more time doing other stuff. Therefore, abbreviated DC adventure post!

Themes of the trip: food, sights, Scrabble.

photos and details behind the cut... )

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Dress

2025-Aug-14, Thursday 11:20 am
[syndicated profile] smbc_comics_feed

Posted by Zach Weinersmith



Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
If you ask a topologist what their house is like they start counting windows, doors, and chimneys.


Today's News:

Get your copy of A City on Mars signed in person in Charlottesville, VA on August 23rd!


Chronocrator

2025-Aug-14, Thursday 07:18 am
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The women who loved Brian. The women Brian loved.

I wish I could say I was in a better mood when we all met up for dinner, but in fact, I was not.

(Patrizia needs to be walked, Brian used to say.)

I covered reasonably well. Maintained, as I used to say back in my druggy days.

I don't know why I wasn't in a sunnier place. All day long, I entertained vague intestinal complaints that I knew perfectly well were psychosomatic. If I tried to think about that for very long, I knew that I was a failure & that nothing very good or very interesting would ever happen to me again, so I didn't think about that, I let the edges blur, and instead I thought about the economic implications of the shift in nurse practitioner licensure to the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, and the pie I was baking Flavia, and whether pigs have wings.

The pie did not turn out well. I am not good at making crusts, plus Icky's oven turns out to be just as difficult & undependable as Icky himself, so the crust burned:



It will taste good, though.

###

When I got back from dinner, I sat outside & watched the darkness rally.

It's practically the end of firefly season.

It's practically the end of summer.

I can't really remember anything much about this summer. This summer followed Brian into the void.

The day had been stormy, but the night sky was clear, and far above my head, I saw the conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn, the Chronocrator medieval astrologers called it, for it presages significant social change, a new 20-year cycle:



Propitious!

(no subject)

2025-Aug-14, Thursday 01:35 pm
[syndicated profile] farsidecomics_feed

“Well, there it goes again. … And we just sit here without opposable thumbs.”

artsy breads

2025-Aug-13, Wednesday 09:56 pm
darkoshi: (Default)
[personal profile] darkoshi
Fancy breads with neat designs:
Korovai
Kolach

stilettos are a no no

2025-Aug-13, Wednesday 07:22 pm
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[personal profile] house_wren
This morning on the way to the clinic I saw, in someone's front yard, a bouncy castle, on top of a trampoline, that was held in place by the safety enclosure. A BOUNCY CASTLE ON A TRAMPOLINE!!!!!! WHAT???? A BOUNCY CASTLE ON A TRAMPOLINE! I mean, is this a thing? Is this common? Then I sang the appropriate song: "Bouncy Bouncy, Oh such a good time! Bouncy Bouncy, Shoes all in a line," etc. (For the song, find a video using "Bouncy Bouncy" and "crimp." Or "crimp" and "Mighty Boosh.")

Today I had MRI images taken of my eyes and head. You know, that machine that sounds like a jackhammer next to your ear. Fortunately for me, I tolerate it well; I choose a topic to think about and by focusing on that I can ignore the discomfort. I thought about the k-drama 'Another Miss Oh' which I have watched over and over. One of the songs from it ran through my mind the whole time.

This afternoon I got the test results and it was All Good News! Hurrah! It means that we still have to search for the reason I'm having double vision, but it also means no signs of tumors or other nasty things. And no incidental findings. So afterward I went to the gelato cafe and had a delicious dish of strawberry flavor to celebrate.

The rose breasted grosbeaks have left. They have been at the feeders all summer and then, suddenly, a few days ago, no grosbeaks. I remembered about the BirdCast Migration Dashboard and looked up my location. Yep. The grosbeaks have left the meadow. To fly to Panama or thereabouts.

The Oven:

1. The oven broke.
2. The only local appliance place does not do repairs on that brand.
3. Call the manufacturer for help finding a repair person.
4. Talk (is it talking?) to their fake human who says, "Here is the company who can come fix it."
5. Say, "Are you sure they will come here?" and AI says, "Oh, yes!"
6. Call the fix it company. Make an appointment.
7. Repair person does not show up. Fix it company does not answer phone.
8. Next day, Fix it answers phone, makes new appointment.
9. Repair person arrives on time.
10. Repair person is lovely and spends well over an hour figuring out the problem, talking to the manufacturer to make sure to order the right part.
11. Write check for (gulp) over $2,000 to fix it.
12. Fix it company boss is on the phone and he says they cannot do repair. Not authorized. No go. Will not fix.
13. Repair person gives back the check. Goodbye!
14. Call manufacturer. Nope. They have no other recommendations for a repair company. Nada.
15. Sob in SNAFU.

(Note: I didn't do all this phoning and chatting, etc. I have a family member for that. Thank god.)

My troubles are ok troubles. The troubles of the world are terrifying.

On Friday I'm going to go back to the gelato cafe and have a serving of affogato.
darkoshi: (Default)
[personal profile] darkoshi
Yahoo sent an email to users on June 25, stating "Starting soon, free Yahoo Mail accounts will include an industry-leading 20GB of storage".

It sounds like they are increasing the storage limit, yahoo! But upon reading the email again, I wondered about this part: "If your mailbox exceeds the new storage limit after it goes into effect..."

The storage limit is actually being greatly reduced:
Yahoo Mail Storage Shrinks from 1 TB to 20 GB: What You Need to Know - article by Zach Nonnemacher, Content Manager at ZeroBounce, August 5, 2025.

It doesn't affect me as I don't keep many old emails on the server. But other people probably interpreted it the same way I did at first. I understand Yahoo wanting to put a positive spin on it, but it is counter-productive if Yahoo wants users to check their usage and do something about it.
This page mentions a deadline, which the emails I received did not: Yahoo Mail Users Must Clear Space or Upgrade by August 27 to Avoid Losing Access

So users who are over the new storage limit likely got another email with clearer details.

.

I was curious about the etymology of that surname, "Nonnemacher".

According to one page which I won't even link to as it seems to be AI-generated make-believe,
The surname Nonnemacher is of German origin and is derived from the Middle High German word "nonne" meaning "nun" and "macher" meaning "maker" or "craftsman." Therefore, the surname Nonnemacher can be interpreted as "nun maker" or "maker of nuns." It is likely that the name originally referred to someone who made or repaired religious garments or objects used by nuns, or it could have been a nickname for someone associated with a convent or religious community.

The Ancestry.com explanation is rather different:

German: occupational name for a gelder of hogs from Middle High German nunne nonne ‘nun’ and by transfer ‘castrated hog’.
+ an agent derivative of machen ‘to make’.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names 2nd edition, 2022


What methods and tools do you use to castrate a pig?
Castrating Pigs
No use of anesthesia is mentioned on the above two pages; the below mention it, but it doesn't sound widely used in the U.S.
Castration of Pigs
Piglet castration

.

"Eunuch maker" seems a more logical term for a gelder than "Nun maker". So I wondered if the etymologies of "nun" and "eunuch" were related. But according to those links, they aren't.

But first, Catio Life [cats]

2025-Aug-13, Wednesday 04:06 pm
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[personal profile] rebeccmeister
I am hoping to create a couple of themed photo posts from adventures in DC and surroundings. But before I get to that, here are some photos of our new catio, as we all enjoy it!

Catio Life

more photos behind the cut... )
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Meltwater from a glacial lake outburst is flooding Juneau, Alaska. Such events are likely to happen more often as climate change destabilizes ice and glacial lakes fill with more meltwater

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