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Yesterday was a very chill Christmas. We had breakfast together, M and P took their traditional excursion to Dunkin Donuts to tip the workers heavily, M and D went for a walk. I finished a handkerchief for T. In the afternoon we all played scrabble, board score 496, very respectable for four players. M’s A had sent two embroideries to give out, and I delivered the sachets. Extended family has sent a very nice holiday lap quilt and some molasses cookie packed in marshmallows. M and P put a fire in the fireplace. Dinner was lamb shanks and couscous for them, and red lentil pin oat stew for me. More fire and family time with nibbles afterwards; P and I played the type game until we got stuck. I played a round of Paperback while M let the fire burn down. Snack, sleep. Dreams about conditioning drills, roasting potatoes in home ec, an underground tunnel complex subverting the security of a vault, a mischievous pair of children.

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Yesterday we walked through the center, and got stuff for Christmas Eve dinner (char, chard, beer, other bits and pieces). G’s home care assistant came around to help with normal things; she was very nice. After lunch I worked on the zine a bit, and discovered I’d left one of the pages at home. Boo. I’ll be piercing together some of it from memory and leaving the rest out. P and I drove to the airport to pick up M. After some chatting we made dinner, ate, did dessert, then I went to bed. G had a rough fatigue day but a good blood pressure day, and was able to be around for most everything with frequent nap breaks.

POUCHES

Dec. 22nd, 2019 07:04 am
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Yesterday I got most of P’s data into the xmas letter, cut handkerchief blanks from some of the spare flannel shirting, cleared away the wrapping detritus from the dining room table, and started packing. Washed the socks so they’d have time to dry. Finished Going Rogue and started book four, Siege Tactics. Got hilarious texts from T, whose cats are out of their minds with the sachets. There’s no catnip in them but they are powerfully herbal. Did the crossword, snuggled a bunch, sewed a quick cover for my thread snips from some scrap canvas, mended the torn-out pocket in P’s pj pants. Dinner, opened the stuff from mom (cute cable protectors! snacks! sloth!), Voyager, snack, sleep.

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Yesterday I repacked the gifts for my folks so T’s could go to his place in Bellingham. At work I shipped the packages, then spent the rest of the afternoon on restoring W’s webserver, which has been languishing since August. I got the primary wiki up, the course wiki up, and started on a special-purpose one that has a more complex extensions ecosystem. Mom called to confirm our travel plans would let us receive our own packages before we left. I helped a very nice older man locate the office of the professor he had a meeting with, and both of them came round afterwards to thank me again, in a charming old-fashioned kind of way. Home, folded laundry, dinner, crossword, snack, sleep. I finished Split the Party and started Going Rogue. Dreamt of a ceramics studio, and an open house event using slipcast ivy leaves.

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Yesterday I finished wrapping gifts for my folks, made tags, packed a box, then thankfully remembered to ask T whether he’ll be in Kingston for the holidays or whether I should ship him his stuff directly. I got another couple months into the prep for the xmas letter. I baked the nut and seed bars. I started reading the next book in the Swords Spells and Stealth series, Split the Party. It is glorious. Lunch was fine, dinner was dubious while cooking but it all worked out. Crossword(nasty SW corner), Voyager, snack, sleep. Dreamt of parades, cabin camping, driving through wee neighborhoods, fast food.

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Yesterday I wrapped gifts for my folks. Finished Two Serpents Rise, and switched to podcasts. At work I backtracked to add a better abstraction to frame arguments, got a bit farther in the current use case test, and eventually figured out that django’s default test case class uses transactions, which prevents the parser from seeing database updates. Boooo.

P had the car on campus, and drove us home. Worked on the xmas letter some, then dinner, crossword, Voyager, snack, sleep. Dreamt of a magic system based on spelling out catcalls with scrabble tiles.

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Yesterday I washed my hair again, since Tuesday’s wash was unsatisfactory. The new product I’m using seems to require a ton of it to actually saturate my hair; I’m not sure I’ll stick with it. Smells nice though.

After lunch we started the Thanksgiving machine. P made bread, quince, pita, and tabbouleh to take to R’s. I made roasted root veg (turnip sweet potato rutabaga parsnip potato) and stuffed the middle eastern pumpkin with wild rice, lentils, millet, almonds, pecans, dried cranberries, dried apples, golden raisins, and red bell pepper, spiced with cumin, cinnamon, coriander, and saffron. Parcooked the grains and lentils for fifteen minutes first and parbaked the pumpkin, open, for forty, then mixed stuffed closed and roasted the whole thing for an hour. Worked great. Tons of leftovers of course (i am smol) but not mad about that at all.

P had a good time at R’s, and I had a good time at home with Voyager. Put two loads of dishes through the dishwasher. Talked to mom on the phone. A good holiday.

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Yesterday was my birthday, and I took the day off work. I cut out all the pieces for the first couch back, finished an embroidery motif and re-hooped, listened to more Crown of Renewal, and snuggled under covers with Elementary. Mom called, M called, a nice card arrived from D&G, and I got some surprise flowers with an unsigned card, probably from dad. P got me a fascinating story told through the medium of origami fortune-tellers. A good day.

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Yesterday I fixed some suboptimal areas of piping on the chair seat cover, put the cushion in, and installed it in the chair. Quite pleased. Echoes of Betrayal is good; the characters I like are getting their comeuppance. I made another batch of nut and seed bars, but made them chewy this time and am not sure I like them. Lunch and dinner were both difficult. I’m getting more sensitive to smell. It is the way of the dark season, but knowing it will get better in February is only helps so much. Ordered a pH-neutral natural deodorant. Instagram ads are millennial QVC. Looked for a vest fitting my constraints (sweater weight, minimal synthetics, machine washable, tunic length, pockets, cool brown) but like. Most sites have maybe three vest styles at all, let alone anything of the right weight and fiber content. I find myself at the wrong end of the dubious mercy of the fashion cycle. I don’t want to knit one, and there’s the same scarcity problem with fabrics I might sew one out of. I’m not desperate enough to buy something in the wrong color and dye it yet but we’ll see.

My cousin B and his spouse got a sewing machine and asked me for advice, so I put together a small list of resources for them. It was fun! I hope they stick with it.

I ripped out and redid some of the embroidery sampler rows several times and am fairly happy with it now. Double feather stitch, double herringbone, and an interlocking trio of closed loop? stitch.

Dinner, crossword, Elementary, snack, sleep. Dreamt of gym class: basketball, volleyball and badminton, for whatever reason. Xena Warrior Princess was there.

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Yesterday I did more hemming, and started a different book: The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. It’s a little abrupt but otherwise good so far. At work I started some database optimizations, one of which seems to have broken something elsewhere in the system.

Home, did a turn through the garden and hooked up the hose to the rain barrels. No beans to speak of, not sure what their deal is. Did some weeding. I need to take the ball of ties down there and help the tomatoes out.

Dinner, crossword, Legends. Mom called to check in and catch up. Snack, sleep.

I dreamt I narrowly avoided being in a tornado, bizarrely in the Woodinville Safeway. The LDS church there had turned into an enormous castle, and was both hit and not-hit. Mysteries.

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health

Yesterday I stay-stitched the yoke, and I’m not sure about the results. A
lot of bubbling, and while it eventually all pressed out, it looks pretty
asymmetrical. I might have to cut another and stitch it over paper to keep
the shape, or underline it permanently with something more stable. I
prototyped a rolled hem, and it looked fine, but when I went to duplicate
the process on the actual pattern piece it refused to cooperate. I wound up
picking it out, and with thread that’s stronger than the fabric I had to do
it one stitch at a time. Not a great sewing day. The masonry guys started
work, so all the windows stay closed during the day and there’ll be brick
dust all over the herb garden this week. I finished Hanging Tree and
started Lies Sleeping. I’m enjoying the design of a new department; the
slow flywheel of people and systems.

Lunch, then work was good; I fixed and committed two sets of bugs and a
third is ready to commit later this morning. I shipped the return to
True&co, and took my snack to the little wooded picnic table behind the
glossy snowman.

Once home I did a turn through the garden and picked blackcurrants and what
is probably the last of the snow peas. The radishes are nearly ready and
could probably use some water. Dinner was a second draft of the previous
one, this time using “fry on low heat with the lid on” instead of my usual
“boil until thickened” and it was a good call. Prepped the blackcurrants
for the freezer, which makes a full quart. I might call that sufficient and
leave the rest for the birds.

Crossword, Legends, Room, snack, sleep.

G update: Welp, when they take him off the hard meds, the heart issues
start up again, so no rehab center for him yet. D is struggling with
anxiety spirals.
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health

Yesterday I finished binding the second armhole. Just buttonholes and then
it’s done! Motoring through Broken Homes, which is good. The long arcs are
getting better.

At work I slogged through more bugs in the caching system. I went to a
meeting of our research group with one of the companies funding us, and
they talked about some related work they’re doing on chat bots for the
finance sector. A database sensor/effector might be in our future. I went
home by way of the greenfield geagle and got earth balance, frozen
blueberries, and frozen peas and lima beans. Walked onto a 58 home, which
is always nice. My new shirts had arrived, along with a shipment of protein
powder, so I’m looking forward to being less tired. The shirts fit great!
The brand is Known Supply; I’ll let you know how they do in the wash.

Dinner, Legends, and then P got home and we decompressed. He had a rough
travel day; apparently the folks running DCA were having a particularly
clown shoes day and he and a few other passengers had to sprint to make it
on their connecting flight despite an hour layover. Ultimately successful,
but far from ideal. He checked in with his mom and M while I had a snack,
then bedtime.

G update: Read more... )
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health

Yesterday I finished the back yoke seam, felled the side seams, tested out
a few approaches to a rolled hem, and hemmed the back. I’m using a 4mm
rolled-hem foot, staystitching in the hem allowance. It’s not magic but it
seems to work out okay if you pay attention and go slow. For future
iterations I’ll probably hem them before doing up the side seams.

I went to the farmers market and got asparagus, cauliflower, cabbage,
shishito peppers, parsley, and coriander, and a sourdough salted dark
chocolate cookie.

Home, cut the cauliflower into planks, roasted in the oven for a half hour
at 375, flipping once. Had brie and sesame crackers for lunch. Did laundry;
clothes and towels. Surreal folding a load of only my clothes. Cleared off
the back porch in prep for the masonry guys tomorrow. Found a bunch of olla
demos and red clay, an abandoned mouse nest, a much more pleasant and very
cozy abandoned nuthatch nest, trashed a bunch of stuff. Don’t let me clean
your place exhausted unless you’re interested in a more Buddhist way of
life. Cookie for snack; was really pleased with past-me for that.

P called; I made dinner out of Priya’s new book, sorta, worked out well.
Mustard seeds and curry leaves, turmeric, ground coriander seed, and winter
squash was the base, but I added red lentils for protein, chopped prunes to
replace the caramelized onions, and some of the roasted cauliflower. Enough
leftovers for a couple lunches.

Finished Moon Over Soho and started Whispers Under Ground. He’s getting
better at writing women.

G update: everybody’s tired. He’s off the opiates, which is good, but still
coughing, which hurts, not so good. T and M just came up for the afternoon,
not to stay. Some of D’s folks might come up later this week to help.
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health, P away, tv

Yesterday I sewed the back yoke seam, trimmed down the seam allowance, then
remembered I was going to fell the seams. I felled the first edge by
machine and started hand-felling the second. Next time I’ll make the seam
allowance on the back panel wider, or maybe I’ll fell it in the other
order? The placket makes the seam a bit weird.

I finished Midnight Riot. I like that his best tool seems to be getting
people to talk about themselves.

At work I redid how slots are generated and that fixed the inference
caching issue. Next is figuring out what’s going wrong with deletions; they
should be cascading but the slot tails are sticking around. I went to a
meeting with F and M, and we got through enough stuff that M will be
working on a pytorch implementation of the backward-chaining equations for
next time. I should probably do a tutorial or two as well so I’ll be able
to read her code.

I went to sqhill after work since it was gorgeous out. At geagle I got
emergency cumin, cheese, gf pretzels, and some sesame crisps that looked
interesting. I walked home via pocusset. It had been a while, so I forgot
Phillips connected earlier than just following wightman to the end of the
line. Ah well. Saw some great gardens.

Home, did a turn through the garden and picked snow peas and NZ spinach.
Dinner (was great, did a tarka of curry leaves and whole cumin), Flash,
snack, sleep.

Txted with P throughout the day — G’s surgery went well, no surprises. Now
it’s just trying to heal as intensively as he can so they can investigate
the next thing. P and M have been switching off cooking; P made chicken
tagine on Thursday and M made pasta sauce last night.
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Yesterday I took apart the back yoke and center back seams, removed the
temporary zipper, picked out buttons, designed the placket, cut bias
strips, and started binding the neckline. I had some executive function
issues after my shower, and missed the shuttle, just barely missed the bus,
and caught the 12:15 shuttle instead. P texted to say he was hanging with C
and see if I was en route, but the issues I’ve been having with cellular
data apparently extend to iMessage as well and I couldn’t convince my phone
to use SMS instead. Called to coordinate. Lunch with P and C, then spent
most of the afternoon on theo bugs and a bit on trying to run wiki backups
on the server. Things kept hanging; I suspect more issues with the NAS.
Grrr.

Stolen continues; the reader is getting more into it and the characters are
all darling. Kam is a bit flighty but genuinely likes people and manages to
be intensely trusting without taking any bullshit. (...personal
aspirations) There’s a lot of trite shorthand in the writing that could be
conveyed more naturally, which feels weird next to the deftness of both the
individual characterizations and the relationships. Hoping to see the
former develop more in later books; authors learning to write is always
fascinating.

Home, dinner, crossword, Flash, snack, sleep. P heard from his folks; his
mom is exhausted and M is going to stick around until P gets there.
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Yesterday I sewed the shoulder seams and inserted a sortof quick popover
placket so it can go over my head easily. I pinned up some bust darts to
the armhole and marked bust points.

We went to open studio and I made four smallish bowls and flubbed one.
Home, then I got stuck in a return/exchange for most of the thread crochet
supplies I ordered, since the mm sizes and recommended hook in the web
descriptions did not match the labels on what actually arrived. I’m keeping
the one hook and two threads that were as advertised, and throwing back the
rest for other brands that may be more accurate.

Unspecified meal, then P signed the CMU offer letter, called his folks to
tell them and check they’re okay (they’d caught a stomach flu going around
a few days ago) (they’re out of the woods now; G was fixing the
dishwasher). I made rhubarb sauce and caramelized a few spare slices in
honey, then called my folks to tell them P’s news and talk about gardening.
Crossword, then I had a snack while P had salad dinner, then we attempted
to sign up for the soda firing class at the bathhouse pottery starting
Wednesday, but the website said sold out. Sent an email to check just in
case, since the website also said it was both free and not-free. She-Ra,
snack, sleep.
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Yesterday I had breakfast, shower, finished packing, took Ativan. Called
gma to see if she was up; she was, so we stopped in to drop off the stuff
from aunt K and say goodbye. Then, airport. First flight was fine but
delayed. We had a long enough layover in ORD that we were fine for the next
flight, though P didn’t get to go to the tapas place he’d been looking
forward to. Second flight was fine. Listened to a bunch more Space Opera.
Drive home had some weird traffic at Carnegie but was ultimately fine. Took
in the mail, which included my passport! Very exciting; now I can go to
Canada again without having it be a one-way trip. No snack, just sleep.
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Yesterday we hung out with uncle D and aunt K at breakfast to see them off,
and heard stories about nuclear waste facilities. I finished the
shirtmaking book. Grandma called and recommended we go to Kingston instead
of sticking around to visit with her some more, but I didn’t have the
spoons for both that and three airports the next day. Instead, we drove
over to alki and walked the beach. It was good. I took P to Spud for lunch.
Got some snacks for the plane at the Metro Market on Admiral Way. Some
quiet time in the room until housekeeping came around, then we walked over
to California Ave and went through an antique shop and Pegasus. P found a
book on the history of the alphabet. Snack, packing, crossword, then P
worked on grading while I commissioned some art I’ve been dreaming of for a
bit on a hot springs/geysers version of the mythical
salamander-as-fire-elemental. Chaco for dinner; I had a mushroom and red
pepper sandwich that was really lovely. By 8 I was starting to pass out so
I just went to bed.
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Yesterday we went to a cute coffee shop for breakfast with my folks.
Afterwards, mom went to visit with gma for a bit, and I washed my hair and
P went for a walk. Mom and dad headed back to Kingston around eleven, and P
and I had lunch at Chaco. I read a bit more of the shirtmaking book, had a
nice nap, then we walked up the hill to hang out with gma. My aunt K and
uncle D were still around, so we all told stories for a few hours. I showed
gma the embroidery, and she was very pleased, and explained how to finish
the edges with crochet lace. I’ll be taking it back to pgh with me for
that. She also explained her pattern for the nylon scrubbies she makes (11
yards of tulle cut in 4” wide strips; ch4, join, 2sc in each st/circ
increases until 20 sts around, slst 1 rnd, dc every other st to close). We
had dinner with her in the cafeteria, then hung out and watched South
Pacific. I don’t think I’d ever seen it before; the ending was a bit
dissatisfying so my headcanon is that instead, all the women move in
together and live happily ever after.

We walked back down the hill at 9 and I did a snack and bedtime routine and
sleep.
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Yesterday mom and I went for a long walk after breakfast and talked about
all the hard stuff. I had a good mid morning snack and then we went over to
Camp Long to set up. The reception was nice; well-attended but not crowded.
There was maybe too much food. It was good to hear the stories people told,
and lovely to meet grandad’s sister and niece. Caught up with cousins,
burned out on people, went for a walk in the woods with P. By the time we
got back there was still an hour left but the heat inside the venue was
becoming oppressive, so we did a last round of folks and escaped for a nap
back at the hotel. Dinner was from a fun Hawaiian place; takeout since it
was packed; we had to go back because they forgot to give us half our
order. Delicious food though. Worth returning when it’s not a Saturday
night of Mother’s Day weekend.

Crossword, more of the shirtmaking book, sleep.

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