Visiting some Goat Friends and Getting New Brakes

We spent yesterday hanging out with some goats at the Sanctuary. I hadn’t been there in a while, and we dropped off some food for the animals. After all of that and returning home for some relaxation, we cooked up a storm, preparing a variety of recipes, some for later in the week. I finally had some time today to travel to Earth-1 and get my brakes done; it had been long overdue, and I’m delighted to be able to mark that off my list.

Currently Reading: Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night by Lisa Belkin.

The Valentine’s Card

I picked up this special card 8.5×11 card a little while ago and wrote things in the circles from Carson and I and then covered them up with scratch off stickers, so that when the circle is scratched the saying I wrote will be seen. Pretty neat, huh?

I also have a special unique thing planned for LD, but it isn’t quite ready yet, which is a shame, but I’m hoping it’ll come relatively soon and turns out extremely well.

The new couch got delivered this afternoon! Yay!! Great Laz-E-Boy store pickup. Just hope that Carson doesn’t take clawing to it. We’ll have to watch that.

Happy Galantines Day, Ladies!

So much for a snow day! They really messed up on this one, a real blockbuster ended up being pretty much of a dud! Don’t get me wrong, I prefer to have little top no snow, and I appreciate the day off (I have to move my regular duties to this Friday) but it’s like I said before. The better the technology gets in weather predicting, the worse the forecasts are. Actually I don’t think it’s the tech, it’s the analysis of the models. Plus the media likes to hype stuff up ridiculous. I actually don’t really pay attention to them anymore to be honest. Rather just use my phone and see the day before what the day after will bring.

So what exactly is Galentine’s Day? The iconic celebration is an unofficial holiday that takes place on Feb. 13, the day before Valentine’s Day. Its entire premise is that women forget about any significant others for the day — and solely focus on celebrating the female friends in their lives. Contrary to the popular criticism that Galentine’s Day patronizes single women, the celebration is meant to be a day of empowerment, and a reminder for women to support and uplift one another. It’s about “ladies celebrating ladies,” as Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope, would put it.

This afternoon we made a lemon orzo chicken soup, and it came out really good. Today was the perfect afternoon to make a soup, in my opinion. I’ve already eaten three bowls of it and plan on having more of it tonight, that’s how much I liked how this one came out!

The Case of the Cute Cuddling Capybaras

We got to partake in an amazing experience yesterday. getting to cuddle and play with a pair of capybaras! I love them! Their fur feels like straw. I never thought in a million years I’d ever be able to play with a capybara, let alone two. I remember seeing this animal in a zoo a few years ago and only learned about their existence a few scant years ago. To me, they seem to be the next up and coming “big thing.” We also go to see a wallaby which had a baby popping it’s head out of her pouch every now and again, which was cool to see, and a special cat, some yaks, alpacas and, of course, some goats, but the capybaras were the stars of the show for me! We were lucky to even get into this experience as it is currently very limited but I hit it just right and was able to get us access. The location of all this wonder was down in Mattapoisett, a town down on the southern coast. It was a bit chilly.

Planning on checking out the Puppy Bowl later today. It’s an animal filled weekend!

Trimming the Bush(es)

I completed a number of tasks today to take advantage of the warmer weather this weekend. That makes sense, with temperatures in the 60s tomorrow and snowfall on Tuesday. Today I even got to talk to a woman who told me she was from Afghanistan and comes by me every now and again so we struck up a short conversation. Anyway, after my shift, I went ahead and decided to attack the insane rose bushes out front. I wanted to drastically reduce the size of those babies. Meanwhile, LD went to urgent care to see about a sore throat she’d been getting. And last night Carson gave us a little scare as a string was coming out of his butt and wouldn’t dislodge but I eventually got it out. Thankfully he’s fine now. That boy needs to stop eating strings! Also, since it’s National Pizza Day, I had to get some tonight. But back to the rose bushes.

I trimmed them way back and also had access to some invasive plants there that I wanted to get rid of for a long time but it was just too difficult to get to. But not today! A couple of hours of hacking and they were gone! Come to find out there was a patch of daffodils under there just trying to breathe. They can get the full sun now! Of course the only negative thing is that where the thorns clipped my fingers every now and then through my gloves, they itch. But that will go away.

Ballin

Surrounded by silver balls. We’re back to watching season of NYPD Blue since we took a break to watch the entirety of seasons of Nip/Tuck. We just got through the gut wrenching sad death of Bobby Simone , which goes across 5 episodes and what I thought was extremely well done.

Other than nothing, nothing earth-shattering to report just yet. Oh, a countertop guy did come by this afternoon and fixed a couple of things in the kitchen but he was done within the hour and it looks great.

Capybara Cuddles for my Valentine? You betcha! More to come on this development!

Helping Out a Few Migrant Families

Tuesday is my busiest day of the week usually. This time on my rounds I changed it up a bit and went around some different ways which ended up being quite fruitful. Some folks think they have the schedule down which is why we like to change it up a bit every now and then. All you have to do is follow the signs and you’ll never have a problem!

In the late afternoon I dropped off some supplies for donation that LD heard about for some migrant families living in town and what they needed. So I went and took the stuff down to the home to be dropped off. It helps out these folks and we were able to get rid of some stuff that was just lying around so it was good to get it moved. Win-win situation.

Gametime; A cute little puzzlescript game called A Rat in Cheesetown. Don’t worry, I didn’t find it difficult but a fun diversion for a few.

Carousing at the Cat Cate

It ended up being a real “cat” kind of day. In the morning I went to a pharmacy store to get a baby card for someone who just had a baby and while I was there I noticed this really cute planter in the shape of a cat with a cactus in it so I got it. Sort of an impulse buy but I thought it was pretty cute, especially since I lost on on the ones Trader Joe’s supposedly had last summer but I could never find. We took a trip out to Tiverton, RI this afternoon to check out a cat café! We didn’t know what to expect but come to find out, the place was actually very cute.

Many of the cats were sleeping when we initially came (actually, we had beverages and I had a breakfast sandwich), but by the time we were finished, a lot of them had woken up and started playing with us. A black and white cat was still nursing her kids, which were very large by this point, but she permitted it, so there was that. They had installations along the walls that allowed the cats to move about the space and perches from which they could look into the café area if they so desired. They had a ton of toys and a very cool what appeared to be handcrafted kind of a cat tree with branches in the corner. Eventually all the cats here will be up for adoption. It was fun way to spend a part of our afternoon. Afterwards we checked out a beach in the area but didn’t stay long and then headed back.

Of course, as cute as they all were none can compete with our Carson. Here he is in a shot I took that kind of reminds me of those Playboy Playmate shots in the magazines from the early 70s!

Highlights for a Saturday in January

What’s been the highlight of your week? This image above was surely one of those. Can you guess where this was taken? I’ll give you a hint – it is in Massachusetts.

This morning I installed the rear wiper on my SUV. Easy peasy. You can find basically how to do anything on YouTube.

I saw a craft online where this person used some beach rocks to make a scene of a lighthouse and a sailboat passing by it. It looked really cool, I think I’m going to try to replicate it. We’ll see how I progress. The first step is obviously getting the rocks the right shape and size and in proportion to the other scene elements. Totally think I can pull it off though.

Note to self: I want to plan an outing back out to KBP in February to maybe check out some of the “Paint the Town Red” events. Maybe start the planning process now. (Yeah, it’s a marketing thing to get people to come there but it’s a cool place and we love it there- plus maybe we can tie in a Boomer visit).

In the early evening we went ahead and made a vegan-ish cheddar broccoli soup. Instead of dairy it uses raw cashews all mashed up. It was actually pretty tasty!

An Ordinary Thursday with Meanderings

Bow to the King! The wonders of A.I.

Just playing around with some AI this afternoon. Doing a little face swapping on things. Like me on this Greek artwork. At least I think it’s Greek? Could be Roman I suppose. Anyways, it’s pretty good except I don’t think it got the hair quite right.

Not much to report on about today. Just shuffling around town doing my thing. It’s amazing that on the days you don’t think you’ll get a lot, you do, and when you think you’ll get a lot, you actually don’t. It’s so strange. Meanwhile, the head honchos want to have a meeting with us in a couple weeks to discuss some “issues.” Sounds ominous but that’s just the way these guys talk. Not sure what that’s all about but hopefully nothing too earth-shattering.

Currently Reading: Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom by Gypsy-Rose Blanchard. Looks like this will be an easy one, it’s only about 100 pages. I already know the story from all the television shows but it popped up as available, so I figured, what the heck. Give it a go You know the story, the one about the Munchausen by proxy.

See a Sunrise At Least Once a Day

Here’s a fun Cape shot that I took a while back. It was cold and I had to get up super early to catch it, but I think it was totally worth it!

When I get a chance sometime and the next time I’m in downtown Boston, I wouldn’t mind checking out some of these Winteractive exhibits. You know I’d have to check out the whale and clown ones at the very least! 🤡 🤡🤡

I went ahead and finally ordered a rear wiper blade for my SUV. Truth be told the rubber had worn out quite a while ago. I plan on installing that myself sometime this weekend.

Happiness is Sunday Morning Cooking Comfort Food

The highlight of the morning was making a pot pie with some ingredients we got yesterday afternoon. Lunch and dinner are now set. We also baked a blueberry oatmeal concoction, which turned out quite well. This was the first time that I can remember that we had all the cooking done by noon time. I actually enjoy when we cook together as a couple. I learn some things and get it done faster, but I also enjoy the process working together.

A low key evening, mostly occupied with catching up on my reading.

Embracing the Cold and baby goats

We took a ride out to Franklin, Ma this afternoon to look and admire some more goats, including meeting this cute little one week old named Nugget. They also had a farmer’s market there where we got some goods. I got an alpaca winter hat which is super soft and warm, and LD got some stuff including a homemade wooden bunny made by an artisan who works with wood that you can stick crayons into it’s back – really cool.

Currently reading: We’ve Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care

Missing of Summer Right About Now

A pic I took a while back that had been sitting on my hard drive, figured I’d post it up because I am missing summer and warm long days right about now. This is from Nauset Beach not too far from the lighthouse. You actually can’t access the location where I took this shot any longer, as I discovered the last time I was in the area, mainly due to the cliff eroding, sadly.