Lois is here

And got the car, she walked over last night to collect it.

Always so good to see her. She has a lot of dogs and a houseguest staying right now so home is very lively.

 

My uneducated and angry take regarding Wagner’s ‘attack’ on Russian military headquarters:
This is a false flag operation, Wagner attacking Russian headquarters; when Putin genuinely doesn’t want someone on the board, he takes them off. Anyone who thinks Prigozhin isn’t following orders or serving Putin’s will doesn’t understand his value; he can be the one to nuke Ukraine (because Putin isn’t killing Ukrainians fast enough for him) and then Putin will step in to restore order and have the true fear and respect of the world again. A coup is not happening; it’s being threatened to terrify Putin’s enemies.
The Ukrainians have to be prepared to join the Japanese in history. Putin waved his hand and a dam broke; he’s mined a nuke plant; what next.

Ukraine post

Every day, more civilians die; Russian rockets are mostly knocked down before they hit anything – but some get where they’re going. The Ukrainians are stalled in their offensive for a variety of reasons.  The biggest is that the Russians have had more than a year to dig in, and you can bet your ass that’s exactly what they’ve done, six defensive lines deep across 30 km. Ground the Ukrainians need to traverse to retake their country is often mined, and the Russian guns are heard all the time because they’re entrenched everywhere.  The Ukrainians have lost a lot of soldiers, and a breakthrough point along that eastern line has not made itself known. They’ve also lost a horrifying number of expensive new tanks, enough that Putin was mocking them. It’s been a meat grinder and I think the Ukrainians need to rethink their strategy. The situation is not assisted by internal dissension. Vitaly Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, is openly feuding with Zelenskyy about local government issues (mostly, this is a gross oversimplification) and from anything I’ve been able to read both men are being idiots litigating resource issues in wartime in the fucking press. But yeah, I think Zelenskyy’s going to try to drive Klitschko out of office for what, somehow being a collaborator? that seems to be how to gets people out of wherever they’re thwarting him and I have no notion how that’s supposed to work democracy wise, Klitschko’s a multi-term mayor in wartime.

Having blown up a dam, Putin is now plotting to blow up Zaporizhia’s nuclear power plant. Zelenskyy’s issued a warning to the world.

while I was helping Paul pack

I took sick and vomited up everything I’d eaten or drunk since that mango. I mean, I’ve been feeling punk but this is tiresome (and thank god my meds have cleared). Having gotten rid of my burden, I cleaned up after myself (I didn’t make it to the toilet, although I did make it to the bathroom) and went home. Alex was there because he was under the weather. The puke itself was spectacularly multicoloured – white for the egg, orange for the carrots, brown for the mushrooms, red for the tomatoes, and as soon as I made the mistake of saying that Alex insisted on viewing it and b’lieve me, he was taken aback.

I think I’m going to drink some water and run a bath, I feel really cold. Okay my appetite came back and I just ate an enormous bowl of pho and it stayed down. I threw out all the veg I laboriously prepped this morning, just to be sure.

Ryker was so great. He’s exactly the same amount of busy when he’s in a good mood but it’s way more fun.

My doppelgänger says hi!

come on Ryker let’s go potty

We asked him if he wanted to poo in the toilet and he vehemently said YEAH and then YEAH again when we checked and Grammy took him to the potty and HE PEED RIGHT AWAY. Katie will likely be thrilled, potty readiness has been achieved.

I sang to him and fed him his lunch and I have never, ever, in my life seen a toddler destroy food like Ryker. Guy’s a bottomless pit. Katie is already expressing horror at how much he’ll cost to feed as a teenager.

thinking thoughts

Jeff has offered breakfast at Foreshore restaurant and just thinking about their coffee makes me happy so I have cheerfully agreed. I’ll try to have something better for my kidneys (less sweet, less fatty) so maybe a bowl of oatmeal.

NOPE I HAD THE ENGLISH BREAKFAST (more vegetable matter and fibre) and it was fantastic. For 13.95 you get two eggs, a homemade sausage, a slab of fried ham, a wedge of watermelon, a bowl of English style beans, fried tomatoes and mushrooms and four pieces of sourdough toast. I dare you to find a higher quality homestyle breakfast for less money anywhere in the lower mainland. Coffee’s not included but it’s bottomless once ordered, so…. OBVS I was not going to finish it so we packaged all the remains and it will make ANOTHER MEAL for both of us. God their coffee is superb and we had the resto to ourselves until a gent in conspicuity gear made his conspicuous appearance and sat far away from us. The server as always is an absolute peach of a woman – we do like her so. The ventilation in the restaurant is excellent and we never go when it’s crowded so I feel relatively safe dining unmasked.

Today I’ll head over to Paul’s in the morning and try to help with packing and I’ll pay Dax for the oil and filter.
Right now I’m thinking bout stuff n things.

love all yall have a good one

This is a list of NO GO PHRASES

So now I have to go through TB and remove all of these:

And by X, I mean Y
Are you having a stroke
Aw helllll naw!
Awesomesauce
Awkward
Bacon anything
Bag of dicks
Best ____ ever
Check please
Cray-cray
Debbie Downer
Did I just say that out loud
Douche nozzle
Dumpster fire
Epic fail
Epic fail
Food baby
Garbage people
Go Sports!
Gonna leave a mark
Good talk!
Hard pass
He’s standing right behind me
Here’s the line, here’s you
I absorbed my twin in the womb
I can’t unsee that
I just peed a little
I think that came out wrong
I think we’re done here
I’d tell you but I’d have to kill you
I’ll show myself out
I’ll take ____ for $500, Alex
I’m a hot mess
I’m right here
It’s giving me all the feels
Laughy McLaugherson
Life Hack
Little help?
Nailed it!
Note to self
Random
Really?
Rut-roh!
See what I did there?
Shots fired
Sorry (not sorry)
Spoiler alert
Squad goals
Stay classy
Swipe right
Thanks Obama
Thanks, I guess
That happened one time!
That just happened
That went – well
This is why we can’t have nice things
Too soon
Uh, define _____
Um, in English please
Va-jay-jay
Wait, what?
We have fun
Well played
White people problems
Who hurt you?
Why are we whispering?
Worst ____ ever
You assclown

This is from a writer’s room for TV. Interesting eh wot

a few items

Mo-no-ny-mous
I mean Shakira
Mo-no-ny-mous
And also Cher
Mo-no-ny-mous
Adele and Bono
and Plato, & Cato,
Colette – and don’t forget Voltaire

(This above for mOm, I sang it to her the other day and she laughed so I thought I’d write it down for her.)

Made fruit salad for the meal yesterday. Last I saw, leaving their house, Paul was going to eat the rest before anyone got seconds. It was that good. And candidly, given that he daily complains about how hard his poops are, who minds that he inhales some food value with his roughage.

It consisted of pieces of melon, blueberries, strawberries, mangoes, the best fucking Bartlett pears I ever et, and oranges. The dressing which is from a recipe I got online, I’m not smart enough to invent it, and it’s for those who can eat dairy: a cup and a half of 10%BF Greek yogurt, three tablespoons of maple syrup and half a capful of vanilla. WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS how nommy it is, and like I said I would have taken home leftovers if there had been any. The mouth feel, good god yall.

Oreo sat on my shoulders a good long while and purred hard in my ear.

I PLAYED A BOARD GAME WITH THREE QUARTERS OF MY DESCENDANTS YESTERDAY. It was Alex’s idea and I had so much fun. Hasbro’s latest version of Clue, if you need to know.

Dax changed the oil in my car. I asked him anxiously from the back deck if the oil was very dirty and he swilled it around in the container and considered the matter and said, ‘Yes’ so dryly that I burst out laughing. I owe him forty bucks for the filter and the oil so I’ll be heading out to drop it off sometime today. Perhaps I’ll combine it with a trip to Peggy’s to ditch that weird fretless bass ukulele.

Made soup yesterday. Started with a litre of unsalted Campbell’s chicken stock, added organic ramen (so damn good), chopped carrots, mushrooms, baby bok choi, a little tiny dab of veggie soup base, a splish of soy sauce. Today or tomorrow I am going to attempt Instant Pot (did you know the parent company is going out of business thanks to asset stripping? Capitalism HOW YOU SUCK) red beans and rice. I may bake up some chicken breasts and taters since the weather seems to be veering off into ‘June-uary’ temperatures.

Thunder and lightning two days ago. Not usual for these parts. We talked about the weather a lot yesterday.

Ryker was just down for his nap and Alex kissed his head AND WOKE HIM UP. He was down for most of the meal and the board game but since he’d gotten no other nap that day and was up at 6:30 Katie was SPARE while Ryker ran around the house terrorizing everything he could and parroting everything his mother said. WITH HER INTONATION. He’s got dozens and dozens of words, some clear enough that people who don’t live with him can understand him. Keith was like that, pristine pronunciation from the git. But Ryker is DIFFERENT. He is stronger, braver (yeah, like no sense of self preservation) smarter, faster, funnier, more able to understand what the adults around him are saying, more able to self-soothe, more durable – he took hits yesterday that would have had me bawling and just walked it off – picking up language so fast. Mike the father brought him back with a pinch bruise on his leg from a recliner, apologetic af, and Katie wasn’t bothered. What can you do? He’s not Alex, or Keith, who conducted themselves from a very early age knowing that the world can bite ya. I told her they should promise each other ten bucks and hand it to whichever of them DOESN’T have to take him to hospital with a broken bone first. You should have seen Katie rubbing her face as she contemplated how many TIMES she’ll likely have to take him to hospital. Like the tshirt said, today we keep the tiny human alive. Except he’s NOT tiny, he can open and shut doors with the handle.

everything about the visit is overshadowed by the fact that Alex is crying every day about how he can no longer go to second street school because his mother can’t afford to live in the catchment area. And the landlord fucked her over by not giving her a duly completed eviction notice so she can’t move up the BC housing list. This world is a horrible place for my children right now and I am helpless.

Over 500 words on TB yesterday. Richie and Blossom have finally met.

Much better

Gosh, I can’t believe how much better I feel this morning! It’s as if everything feels clearer and lighter.

Today’s Father’s Day. My pOp is best pOp, your argument is invalid. Okay, Leo’s a good father, and he fathered good fathers! Damnit, so is Terry. So was Jim (actually among the best) and then there’s Tom, he was a bighearted dad, and my grandads, and Barry, and David, and actually my life is full of good dads. Paul was among them. He’s still family, but he has passed into the part of the world where he is no longer really a dad. Katie didn’t advertise it as a father’s day meal but we’re getting together tonight. I hear Dax is fixing to change the oil in Paul’s Echo.

I am going to endeavour to persevere; I hope you all can manage that today. We are for going schlepping when the grocery opens.

A long joke, stolen from saturn128 on reddit. Typos have been corrected and it’s been slightly edited.

One day Fibonacci goes to the fair with his friends: Ms. One, Mr. Five, and Dr. Twenty.

While Fibonacci perused the fairgrounds, his friends decided to enjoy a variety of different competitions and games.

Ms. One thought to try her hand at the ring toss and ball throwing games. She’s a pretty good shot and quickly wins a pair of adorable stuffed toys shaped, oddly enough, like small cherry trees.

Mr. Five, being a man with a hearty appetite, went to sign up for the pie eating contest. When the time came to compete, Mr. Five set to his task with a ravenous fervour. The competition was brutal and incredibly messy, but by the end Five had scarfed over a dozen pies.

Dr. Twenty wandered to an area a little more removed from the main fairground. He was, in fact, looking for the tent that he knew would host the poker tables. Dr. Twenty was an avid gambler, a man of numbers and statistics as well. Upon finding the tables, Dr. Twenty is already prepared with his own bet. Placing ten dollars in the pot, he is dealt his cards and solidifies his poker face. After a solid hour of cards, the doctor had won over three times as much as he had originally bet.

All the while, Fibonacci had walked between his friends and checked on their activities. In his wanderings he had run into an acquaintance of the group. They asked, “How did the others fare in their games?”

Fibonacci responds, “Oh, One won two trees, five ate thirteen, Twenty won $34.55.”

feelin a bit better

I don’t feel great but I’m going to quit whining anyway.

It was good to see Oreo and Paul and Keith yesterday. Paul and I almost made it to Pho Edmonds but his blood pressure tanked and he was super dizzy. (He’s been messing around with his meds and taking them at different times of the day to figure out which is best. I take mine in the morning and just put up with the hour (usually considerably less time) of dizziness and nausea. Bonus, my body tells me if I’ve missed my morning meds. No, I’m not overmedicated.

I bought 45 dollah of fruit and veg yesterday and now I’m chopping it up and roasting it and I made a pure vegetarian stirfly yesterday and apart from the canned baby corn and the fact that thanks to salt restrictions it was blannnnnnd, Jeff approved. It has within it: bamboo shoots, baby corn, baby bok choi, bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli. Oil and oregano brushed long eggplant is in the oven for snackies later; I just ate a quarter of a very sweet but extremely firm cantaloupe and I’m quietly working on my tea while I go through the rest of my morning routine.

Supper at Katie’s tomorrow.