Done last year (20121224Su - 31Su)
Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit. Hippo, Gnu, Deer. Or something like that. It's time for the last dregs eight days of 2017 to finally show up. And year we are.
The week opened with an actual white Christmas, which was kind of amazing. Colleen had never had one, though we've had snow close to Christmas since coming to Washington. We had the entire family, including G and the kids. (We'd planned on having the YD and her outlaws, but between illness and the snow, we didn't. Fortunately we'd had them over the previous Wednesday.)
I made a standing rib roast, which went over very well even though it came out a little rarer than I'd wanted. We never did put up a tree -- we would have had to suspend it from the ceiling, because cats -- but I did put a lighted fake-pine garland along the kitchen/dining room counter. Gifting was not affected, though; there were comparatively few gifts, but all were good ones. We decided that maybe next year we could decorate one of the trees outside, where they would be safe from cats (though not necessarily cows).
G had been planning to go home in (van) Rosie. Yeah, right. She ended up inches away from falling off the bottom of the driveway. N managed to get (Bolt) Molly up to the street, but only with the aid of g wielding a shovel. I decided to buy an actual snow shovel at the first opportunity. N drove G to the ferry, whence he went home by public transit.
I did a fair amount of reading; the most interesting, I think, was about Elm, a functional language that compiles into Javascript and benchmarks really well against the most popular JS frameworks. Apparently you can also get Haskell and Clojure. Hmm. There's more good stuff in the links, as usual.
I did not get nearly as much done over the week as I had hoped; that is probably a Good Thing.
See also: mdlbear | River: That Was the Year That Was, which is the year-end summary, slightly out of order. We finished the year by toasting the New Year on East Coast time, so that we could all get to bed close to our usual bedtimes.
Notes & links:
1224Su Christmas Eve & awake, sort of, 6:30 * up 7:30ish; W=199; @ Fire in the Sky by Jordin Kare, performed by S.J. Tucker - YouTube f(G) @ Edward Snowden made an app to protect your laptop - The Verge uses a cheap burner phone as a motion/light/sound sensor. Sit it on top of the laptop when you go out. guardianproject/haven: Haven is for people who need a way to protect their personal spaces and possessions without compromising their own privacy, through an Android app and on-device sensors @ 10 Reasons Why Therapy May Not Be Working (ysabetwordsmith) @ The Original ScrapBox craft centers * put up the garland on the kitchen counter, secured with a little duct tape. * made cranberry relish, using the two over-ripe pears from Mom's package. No sugar required. : It's been snowing. E will update us in the morning. There's about an inch on the ground right now (18:26) * 10:35 finally done wrapping. Ouch! 1225Mo Newton's Birthday * up 5:30ish; W=199; : There is snow on the ground, so White Christmas. Colleen's first. looks like ~3" : Forgot to put the leftovers away. Probably distracted by wrapping. * 6:15 take roast out of fridge 2-4 hours ahead @ Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide | SPLC (ysabetwordsmith ) * cook 3-3:15 450 (15min)/325. By weight, 2-2.5 hours; by rib count, 2.75-3 hours. interior temp 120 for rare * 10:30 start oven. Aim for serving ~ 2pm * 10:45 put Beast into oven * Dinner at 2pm. Pulled the roast out at around 1:40 and cooked the Yorkshire pudding while the beast was resting. I felt harried, but everything came off smoothly, and everyone liked it. Not quite as rare as wanted, because G insisted on leaving it in past 120F; it was around 130 when we took it out. But still good. If we actually get 12 people next time we'll want seven ribs. -> didn't make either pie or either of the salads. Forgot about the cranberry relish : 3ish - Rosie stuck at the bottom of the driveway. Need all-weather tires along with the other work. Ought to be done this week, since we won't be teaching. : N got Molly out (to take G to the ferry) with the help of g wielding a shovel. Just barely made it. Left her on the street for tomorrow. * Called Mom. @ happily reading The Time Traveler's Handbook: 18 Experiences from the Eruption of Vesuvius to Woodstock: Johnny Acton, David Goldblatt, James Wyllie @ Mind = Blown: Almond Milk Has Barely Any Almonds In It At All about 2% % the muscles on the left side of my neck hurt. Must have been holding it wrong somehow Trapezius, I think. 1226Tu Boxing Day * up 5:45; W=200; cuddles, shower % hot shower helped the trapezius some, though it's still not pain-free @ Things they don't tell you about being a first time wheelchair user in highschool (archangelbeth) @ The Workshop of Dionysus | A place to inspire the revival of ancient double pipes (Time Traveler's Handbook) ancient Greek instruments and music. * call Mariam Ross, LCSW for appointment 360-341-5252 (office) * take up garbage @ Science fiction when the future is now (linkedIN) @ Learning to Write Fluffy, Glittery Violence from My Little Pony | Seanan (archangelbeth) * Tuesday...: leftovers 1227We * Up 6ish; W=199.2; : Brooklyn is playing soccer with a toy. Looks like either a mouse or a bear. $ C $100 to Carleton via AMEX % 2ish very low blood sugar. Flaky. Had peanut butter and marmalade on a rice cake * to Freeland for last-minute random groceries; hoping to find a snow shovel but didn't Most of the people in Ace didn't even know what one looked like. % 4:15 still feeling fragile and out of it. ~ Damn - apparently the last time I had gin I didn't close the cap tightly enough. Very slow leak, so not too much and apparently all on the bottle and the glass shelf, but it required cleaning everything on that shelf. Grump. - Damn - both N and I forgot our singing lesson. Grump. -> Set alarm for 4:30pm; hers is 4 : The typos and other errors in The Time Traveler's Handbook are occasionally jarring. "gyro-falcon" indeed! 1228Th & awake 4ish; read Science. Ticia annoying. Seems like what keeps her from pulling at me with her claws is putting my arm around her, or a hand under her. I suppose I can do that... * up 7ish; W=199; * 11:25 phone call from (nurse) Roger at the Freeland clinic -- I've been referred to surgery for the hernia, and can expect a call eventually. * make * to.do entry and * hotel reservations for ConJose; * 12/13 buy memberships AC HOTEL BY MARRIOTT SAN JOSE DOWNTOWN 350 W Santa Clara St, San Jose, CA 95113 conf# 32KHRC4N - NB. this is NOT the San Jose Marriott! got in too late. CRAP <- filking in the Marriott; parties in the Fairmont : call from Orlando at onstar re: phone app charge limit. * 1:25 Mariam Ross (LCSW) 11245 SR525 Just before SWAC - 16min. Leave 1pm o SL: pantsu, snow shovel, 100% milk, ziplok sandwich bags @ Prepared Housewives - SIMPLIFIED: Food Storage ⢠Emergency Prep ⢠Survival Skills (from wikipedia dive aluminum -> stack melter -> rocket stove.) -> annoying popup. I don't particularly want a subscription. There may be useful stuff there, but I'll pass. * music started noodling, then N came out. Caveat Emptor (still working on the chords for that one), Desolation Row (C's request), Rambling Silver Rose (N's request). A little script woodshedding on Rosie. : my.chevrolet.com gave me an alert that my Sirius subscription was about to expire. It wasn't, and moreover after creating an account (under s@t because it wouldn't take s@s as my email/username) my credit card info was already there. WTF? @ Carolina Eyck theraminist f(G) Carolina Eyck - Delphic - theremin & voice, and a looper. Cool! 1229Fr * up 6:35; W=199; @ DuckDuckGo Blog @ About Brave (browser, via DDG) : finally ordered 500 caravan massage cards from overnightprints.com The cards are cheap, but shipping is fairly expensive. They probably make some money off that; I opted for 3-day, which gets them here next Friday * tried to contact onstar -- their chat isn't working. acct# 428906266395 866-635-2349 -> chat apparently requires turning on one of the trackers. incognito works. Except that it can't get me to an actual person. @ Elm - an FP language that compiles to Javascript "Make the Back-End Team Jealous: Elm in Production" by Richard Feldman - YouTube A Brief And Partial Review Of Haskell In The Browser cf PureScript, ClojureScript Introduction · An Introduction to Elm rtfeldman/dreamwriter: Streamlined long-form writing software. Written in Elm. * call Klein Honda (888) 454-1687 Michelin Defender -> Tuesday 1/2 * Humira arriving * 1:30 (V driving) C Freeland clinic plumbing swap. (also lunch, shopping, etc.) : Bronx spent about half an hour curled up next to my laptop, obviously taking advantage of the heat from the fan. @ Creative Commonsâ Branding Confusion | QuestionCopyright.org Nina Paley Q(me: Which is the better Creative Commons license for songs, BY-SA or BY-SA-NC?) -> call the CC-BY-SA just "ShareAlike" (still link to the CC definition, but different branding because CC has become too closely associated with NC. * a few minutes of guitar noodling. My fingers need it. 1230Sa * up 6:20; W=198; @ Curate's egg (amaebi) " The bishop says: "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones." The curate, desperate not to offend his eminent host and ultimate employer, replies: "Oh no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!" " @ OK, WTF Is a Time Crystal? - Motherboard (ysabetwordsmith) Scientists unveil new form of matter: time crystals | Berkeley News Physics - Viewpoint: How to Create a Time Crystal @ America's Malls and Department Stores Are Dying Off | Time f(ysabetwordsmith) @ xkcd: 2018 @ 10 Things You Can Only Do With GDB â Developers Area L(embedded Linux) & email to hotel@conflikt.org asking for help with upgrade (ConfliktFrog) " If you'd like us to assist, email hotel@conflikt.org with the reservation number and we can try to get you there. " @ my answer to What is the difference between a command terminal, or shell, and an SSH terminal? - Quora $ C $75 amex to Amnesty International (online) $ C $50 amex to Human Rights Watch (online) $ C $60 amex to Peace Action (mail) : N trying to set up SirusXM streaming with her Dot. The sirius site says streaming is free with a car account, but when you try to set it up (it insists on another account setup with a password) it asks for another $5/month to upgrade. @ React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces - in many ways their "jax" sub-language looks a lot like PIA. @ HTML5 Audio : The Embed Audio element - HTML | MDN Build an HTML5 Audio Player using the JS HTMLAudioElement API * down 11 Menu 1224Su-1230Sa * Sunday: 6 people. pasta with _meat_ or cheese sauce, TBD. * Monday: Christmas. 6-12 people. apple pancakes for breakfast. Roast Beef. cranberry relish. broccoli, x apple-raisin salad, x carrot salad (grated carrots with lemon juice) * Tuesday...: leftovers --- 1231Su & awake 3, 4; * Up 5:30; W=199, f=~sleepy; # f=feeling, for sleep diary. ~sleepy = a little sleepy * draft twtytw and new-year in River @ 10 natural cough remedies | MNN - Mother Nature Network (dialecticdreamer) * SiriusXM Listener Care Hours: MâF: 8am â 10pm EST SâS: 8am â 8pm EST 866-635-5027 -> adding streaming is another $5/month, but only one device can be logged in at a time. Which sucks. It also took almost forever for an agent to answer. % I really hate SiriusXM. $ C $100 AX Chemical Heritage Foundation (in memory of Dad) $ C $50 AX Oxfam America $ C $50 AX Planned Parenthood $ C $50 AX Good Cheer Food Bank -> they're using PayPal, and it forces you to either log in or create an account. no guest checkout. Somewhat rude. $ C $50 AX American Cancer Society $ C $50 AX Interfaith Alliance ? C $50 AX Human Rights Watch -> transaction failed. No idea why. : charities down to a handful that don't seem to take donations online @ Web Hosting, VPS Hosting, Reseller Hosting - Hawk Host (siderea) coupon: HHI-X0H7URVWJS -- from a popup. @ posted mdlbear | River: That Was the Year That Was, which is the year-end summary. * Celebrated the new year on East Coast time; toasted with Bloom's Ambrosia, which is lovely stuff. 2017 Goals: * *Downsize* Get rid of as much _stuff_ as we feasibly can, so that we can... * *Sell the house* Preferably in such a way that we can move out somewhere around the middle of June. -> sold in May, moved in July, but anyway it worked. * *Retire* If possible, _after_ the house is sold. If _at all_ possible, after my stock vests in mid-June, because we're going to need it. -> in progress. Notice given 3/17 * *Move* _to Whidbey Island_ -No idea where; we've had enough monkey wrenches lobbed into our plans that I could start a hardware store.- . *Settle in* We will have emergency exit plans, but hopefully won't have to use them. . *Take care of myself* Self-care is my weakest point. Diet, exercise, ... damned if I know -- I _hate_ exercise, but I'll have time to walk again. * file 2016 taxes x get through bills and other paperwork -> mostly 2017 WIBNFs -> rolled over to 2018: x Get back into recording. x Do a lot more writing. I wrote a book once; it's not impossible to do it again. x Do a little woodworking. x Do _something_ that will bring in a little money. I'm not sure I'm up for contracting again, but writing could do it. So could an album or two. And maybe I could start a patreon. Teaching? Computer help?
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