I'm keeping an eye out for it. We first saw it on our way out to dinner. And I didn't see it when we came back about an hour later. Hopefully mama found it and got it home. It was barely bigger than a softball. I already know of a rehabber collective that I will call if I do see it again.

Got up to Carter Fold last Saturday. I don't think I had been in over 40 years when my grandma dragged me there to watch her clogging. But now I enjoy bluegrass more and am nostalgic for things of home, so I convinced my aunties to go with me. Twin Creeks String Band was playing and they are very good. We had a surprise random tv personality visiting, on her own road trip with her besties (Carla Hall from Food Network). She had no self consciousness whatsoever about getting out there and dancing despite not knowing the "proper" dance steps. It didn't matter. A good time was had by all.

If ever you're near Tri-Cities, make time to go to a Saturday night show. You won't regret it.

Found it in my pool while I was getting it ready for summer. Rehomed it to the neighbor's pond where it will have lots of turtle friends.

Found him in the skimmer this morning. My hand must feel more cozy than the basket as he chose to take a nap once I picked him up. I carried him across the street to the wildlife refuge marshy area. Be free, little 🐢

BG was sponsoring the Atlanta Olympics that year, and some marketing person thought it would be a fun idea to put our home state on name badges as kind of a US ambassador-like gesture I guess for all the extra visitors the parks expected.

I don't know if we saw an increase in visitors that year. Williamsburg is like a 12 hour drive from Atlanta. But I did have one guy complain to me about the Italian food we sold in the cafeteria, that it was horrid, and his wife was Italian, and she couldn't eat this. Almost 30 years later and I still remember that guy. Why was he remotely expecting decent food at a theme park? I have no idea. And I still have Funiculì, Funiculà running through my head on occasion. Thanks BG.

It's just a handy place to put my phone down for a second. Or stash a pen or a credit card.

This came up in the rotation on the tv and it amused me. I tried asking it for a pattern but it was unresponsive 😂

I don't really see many people talk about this game, but I also could have just missed its heyday.

I really enjoyed playing this game. The hospital and the metro stations were my favorite things to brave. And having to sneak into a nest of monsters to recover something for someone.

Played on the PS5. I didn't care for the add-on DLC fight ring stuff, mostly because I hate timed missions. I much prefer the dangerous urban exploring at a leisurely pace.

Has anyone played the first Dying Light? How do the two stories compare?

Motorcycle-sized tuna fetches more than $1 million at Japan auction By Jay Ganglani, Lisako Neriki Ancheta and Chris Lau, CNN

Updated: 3:18 AM EST, Mon January 6, 2025

Source: CNN

A bluefin tuna about the size of a motorcycle has been sold for $1.3 million (207 million yen) at Japan’s most prestigious fish market, setting the second highest price on record during its new year auction.

Mom hung a mass produced art print on my bedroom wall when I was about 8. It's of a little girl holding her puppy.

Cute, right?

Thing is, this painting terrified me. And I was raised in the time where you just kind of swallowed any complaints and didn't bother mom or dad with kid foolishness.

Here is a copy of the thing I actually had hanging on my wall. This same frame. Probably came from Service Merchandise or some such.

What in the everloving hell is lurking just over her shoulder?!?! To me it always looked like a skull wearing a hat on the side of his head, like a little old timey jaunty hat a clown would wear.

It's a wonder I got any sleep. I was too afraid to tell mom I hated it. I never considered that I possessed the agency to take it off my wall and hide it at the bottom of the closet.

I think of this cursed painting still.

Did you ever have something in your childhood that unnecessarily scared the bejeezus out of you?

I'm so frustrated with myself. No clue when was the last time I've seen this thing (wallet of crochet hooks). Yesterday I searched every project bag, every bag of my yarn stash, every drawer, nook and cranny where I might have put it absent-mindedly. I just went through them all again today. I have memories of seeing it on the breakfast table, on my desk (where the cat tried to annihilate the decorative tassle on its zipper), and in a project bag. I've moved it somewhere. I want to start a new project but need a hook of unusual size that is in the wallet. I haven't been motivated to crochet in a while, and I caught a spark over the weekend by finishing up another project. Blegh. Fuck.

Thank you for reading my rant while I wallow in self-loathing.

P.S. This thing is neon fucking pink and bigger than a paperback book. I must have a forgotten project bag smushed into a closet or left out in the camper. I thought I accounted for all my half-started projects though.

On Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (aka JBER aka "J-Bear"), a literal bear broke into a storage room and ransacked the MREs inside.

While not unusual to have bears encroaching onto base, it is unusual to have them breaking into buildings.

Another bear was discovered in the motor pool building... sitting in the front seat of a Humvee!

(...when you're a bear and you can't do drugs but you wanna go whee!)

I feel giddy. I had an idea and it worked beautifully.

Are you a fan of canned cinnamon rolls? Even as a half decent baker, I frequently don't want to spend the time making rolls from scratch and I just want one ▪︎right now▪︎. It never mattered if I made the 8 pack from Pillsbury with soft little delicious puffs of dough or the 5 pack of actual rolls holding generous shmears of cinnamon filling. Neither of those varieties ever comes with enough damn icing!

I scrape and I scrape the little plastic container but it empties too fast. I tried warming it a bit, liquifying the icing just barely and drizzling it over the buns to make sure I got every last molecule of sugar out. Too soon and the hot buns finish melting the icing and it all pools down on the plate. Not enough. It's never enough!

Then about a week ago, I had an epiphany during an all-nighter sugar craving. I recalled the tubs of cream cheese icing I hoarded from Lidl for when I want to make a quick batch of cupcakes.

I know. I know it's stupid easy to make. I have developed a recipe that is pretty damn good IMHO. But the tedious clean up from making icing, powdered sugar coating everything, even my lungs, sometimes I opt for convenience.

Anyways, tub of icing in pantry. Check.

Then I recalled in my college years when an early internet forum suggested slightly microwaving a tub of icing and drizzling it over bundt cakes. My cake game got an immediate boost in approval from friends and family. I eventually moved away from store bought icing for most cake applications and this technique got shoved to the bottom of my brain stack.

So now... what if I microwaved that cream cheese icing tub and drowned some cinnamon buns with it? Holy Jesus on a cinnamon stick!

Yes, precious. That did it. THAT made the dopamine flow just as the sticky sweet slightly tangy cream cheese icing gently enveloped my buns cooling down from the oven. And now I share my little franken-roll hack with you.