mdlbear | Done last month (20170924Su

Note: posting from the web form because ljupdate can't do ssl :P

Hmm. I don't remember this as being a particularly bad week. Things must be going ok. Or ok-ish. Not to be confused with orcish. I don't think things have been orcish.

The main accomplishment for the week was getting my desk, a 2x4 slab of half-inch oak plywood, off of the two tray tables it had been sitting on and onto proper legs. The legs are 2x2s braced with angle brackets; I later added a 1x8 across the back to keep it from sagging. Unlike most desks, this one is meant to have me sitting on one of the short sides; this lets me put both printers on top and store two file pedestals or similar things underneath (though doing that will require clearing off a great deal of paperwork clutter).

Our sick kitten, Bronx, appears to be recovering. He's still thin, and we're on day four of the five-day period after his last dose of antibiotic during which his bacterial infection might come back, but so far so good. He's back to his usual rambunctious self, though. Finally.

Sunday we announced a music party and invited mostly the people we'd met at (neighbor) Dean's party a couple of weeks before. Nobody showed up -- we were only mildly disappointed and not at all surprised, but N and I had a good time singing. I have continued to spend a few minutes every day noodling, in hopes of getting my left-hand calluses back in shape. Set list in the notes.

Colleen's Samsung tablet is dead -- probably the power connector. Again. Even if that gets fixed, which will be worthwhile if only to do a factory reset, the battery life was down to 2 hours or so. To replace it, I ordered a 10.1" Lenovo Tab 4. Very nice. I'm thinking of ordering the 8" one for myself, to replace the Nexus 7 that disappeared. (It's probably in a box. Good luck finding it, since it wasn't in the bin I labeled for it.)

I've been approved to buy enough term life insurance to cover the mortgage. At the "healthy" rate, even! This is slightly mind-boggling. Now I have to figure out whether it's worth the money. I also have to finish my income tax; the deadline after the extension I filed is October 17th. Basically all that's left is tracking down the charitable deductions. I also need to put in something toward my estimated taxes because I haven't been withholding enough. Meaning I also have to track down and file the W4s.

Alongside that, I have to go through the exercise of preparing a reasonably accurate budget, based on my current cash flows. Which I should be able to get a pretty good handle on now that we've been here a while (and now that I've made the annual car insurance payment).

Colleen and I, at N's suggestion, have started making a weekly dinner menu. This coming week is the the first -- I'll report next week on how we did. The actual menu is at the bottom of the notes.

Notes & links:

0924Su
* Up 6:30; W=197.4;
@ siderea | [eldercare/med, Patreon] Medications Dangerous to the Elderly
* 15min: desk legs: preliminary install; about half the angle brackets. Too short,
and the plastic inserts keep coming out.
: The magnets I ordered from $A arrived. The magnetic bit-holder cuffs are worthless;
the others are ok. -> actually, they do work; don't know what I was doing wrong.
% Can't find superglue (for broken fingernail) or silicone (for desk legs) in the house
* 15min: spelunking in the garage; found garden tool tote, music stand, the missing
piece of the purple guitar stand, half-inch screws, and some magnets. Brought in the
milk crate with the music stand accessories and the casters (which were what I mostly
wanted, for the desk). Silicone turned up in the house under the Bose 'phone case
? noonish music, here.
: UC: desk legs attached. It's wobbly enough that I'll want to get a pedestal for the
far end, and at that point it will probably be worthwhile replacing the top with
somethingf a little wider. I think my other piece is 32"; the extra 8" would be
significant. It also sags about half an inch under the laser printer.
& Nobody else showed up for our music party, but Naomi and I had a good time singing.
Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts, (Under His Hat He Had) Things, Mushrooms,
Threes Rev 1.1, Windward, Millennium's Dawn, Uncle Ernie's, As You See, Bells of
Norwich. Not in order except the first and last, and I've forgotten at least one.
@ bnewman | Long overdue song roundup!
@ jesse_the_k | Fanfics about Nuclear Waste Storage
Excerpts from "Expert Judgement on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into
the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant"
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
How to tell future generations about nuclear waste | Grist
An Alert Unlike Any Other - latimes
the actual report

0925Mo
& Dream; nice long early morning cuddle with Ticia
* Up 5:40; W=198.2;
: A lot of my McQuillin albums are missing from mm/audio; don't know what's up with
that. Did I just have them on tape? Order the missing ones from
@ Shadowsinger Records - CDs by Cynthia McQuillin
Have: Dreams_of_Fortune, Moonshadows, Mystic_Lady, Singer_in_the_Shadow,
This_Heavy_Heart, Witch's_Dance, Crystal_Memories
Need: Bedlam Cats, Uncharted Stars, Dark Moon Circle, Midlife Crisis,
Don't seem to have any of the Midlife Crisis disks, either. WTF?
: Call from OnStar "executive relations" team. Not related to case 118216703 (broken
email - see 0919)
~ plumber spent all day underground chasing a leak; will be here tomorrow.
: Armor summer sausage is a win. (Contais pepper and mustard seed. Yum.)

0926Tu
& Awake 3:45ish; got up and read for a while, tried to get back to sleep arouned 4; got
up at 4:30 and read some more. C asked for cuddle around 5
* up 5:45ish; ;
* 15min: coat hooks installed on entry-way strip. There's room for two more.
-> naturally the ones I ordered in 2015 aren't available anymore - the same ASIN only
comes in chrome and white. There's one that looks identical, but it's an add-on
item. :P
* Pulled down Desolation Row. Preliminary cleanupapr
& j's social studies project: a tour of websites about ancienbt Egypt and Mesopotamia
* paid Safeco bill - fairly large because it's for the whole year. Have to remember to
keep out ~4K for that. And another for the life insurance. Hmm. That's close to
$1k/month, when you count other annual expenses like RainbowCon and specials like Con
Jose. That's going to be tight.
* (plumber) Andy will be here to install toilets and fridge line
-> Fridge needs a new filter -- this one's smashed. Probably while moving it.
@ Raw Chocolate Energy Bites (ysabetwordsmith)
~ take C to Freeland Clinic for lab work.
-> they want UNW to fax over an order.
* UC: paid a couple of bills. Kind of lame, actually. (Also paid T and the plumber)
* 15min: cut four shelves down to 3' and installed them in the music corner on the West
wall.
% long talk with N and C about some aspects of my behavior, and dinner planning. We
need to start planning for the entire week. Plan menu Saturday, go shopping Sunday,
and that's it.
* made dinner: Mac+Cheese.
% tired/tense/depleted. Probably adrenalin rush fetching towels for the fridge leak
* Music: a little after my target time of 8pm, but ok. Just a little noodling to keep
my fingers in shape -- didn't take very long before they were starting to hurt.

0927We
* up 6:20; W=198.6;
* 10 Types of Study Bias | HowStuffWorks
* ordered a new tablet for Colleen. Lenovo Tab 4, 10.1"
Seriously considering the 8" for myself. Damned if I know where my Nexus 7 went.
* 3:30 Freeland Clinic Colleen (catheter and labwork). Some shopping after.
* M/C: Pull down and format lyrics to Desolation Row and Lily et.al.
* French toast for dinner, using the going-stale French baguette. _pain perdu_ indeed
% it's been a week since I went back on buspirone; it may be helping a little?
* Colleen: Humera

0928Th
* awake 3ish (after C woke up). Tried at least twice to get back to sleep; mostly
financial/paperwork worries.
* up 5:30am; W=198.6;
* W/F: finished putting a 1x8 across the back of the desk to keep it from sagging.
Raised it about 3/4" using the new levelers. I'd prefer to have it 32" or so wide
instead of 24, but it's perfectly usable and there's less surface area to clutter.
It does kind of need a side table for eating -- tray table would work if I got rid of
the papers on it.
% tired but accomplished.
* M/C: add \makesongtitle lines in */Lyrics* - missing in steve/Lyrics-* and tg/Lyrics
# "M/C:" = Music/Computer. Project work rather than decluttering.
# "W/F:" = woodwork/furniture. May include shelving, etc. Most of the latter has
traditionally been under 15min; I'm not going back to re-tag, and may very well drop
* am: teaching j
: (caregiver) M - her first day/week.
@ What should you think about when using Facebook? · Vicki Boykis (jesse_the_k)
" It’s very sad that a social network that’s done so much good is also the single
worst thing about the internet, but until people leave the platform or apply some
kind of economic pressure on it, nothing will change. "
@
John Lanchester reviews ‘The Attention Merchants’ by Tim Wu, ‘Chaos Monkeys’ by
Antonio García Martínez and ‘Move Fast and Break Things’ by Jonathan Taplin · LRB 17
August 2017 more about FB
" What Facebook does is watch you, and then use what it knows about you and your
behaviour to sell ads. I’m not sure there has ever been a more complete disconnect
between what a company says it does – ‘connect’, ‘build communities’ – and the
commercial reality. "
@ GitHub - riebschlager/make-the-internet-suck-less hosts file black hole lines
@ Wire · Secure communication, full privacy.
* 1pm SWAH ambassador Corrine Bayley
-> got member's handbook, volunteer forms for me and N
massage maybe; music maybe; IT support definitely.
* 15min: puttering in garage. Found the Rainbow Room diptych, but not the tree which I
*know* is in there someplace.
* W/F: cut a 6' shelf out of one of the 10' ones.
* call container store about order -> supposedly on a truck right now. I'll call again
in the morning if I don't have a tracker.
: Colleen and M made fudgies. The first batch was ruined because they mistook an
unlabeled bag of cornstarch for sugar. One successful lactose-free batch for G, and
one regular for the rest of us.
* call onstar to follow up on case #118216703 (email); see 0919
-> Kate, the technical team supervisor, at least had all three case numbers.
this has become something of a game (i.e. a timewaster in place of doing taxes)
& soup and salad for dinner. Quick salad with lettuce and English cucumber, with thyme,
rosemary, pepper, salt, red wine vinegar, and olive oil. Soup from the Bear Creek
vegetable beef mix, with added ground beef and a little garlic. Surprisingly good.
% 8:30ish sleepy. This is not surprising

0929Fr
* up 6:20; W=198.6;
* jschool: Logic! Venn diagrams, notation, set notation, quantifiers.
most syllogisms map into first-order predicate calculus.
@ Georg Cantor - Wikipedia
@ Syllogism - Wikipedia
@ Boolean algebra
@ Propositional calculus - Wikipedia
@ First-order logic
@ Zebra Puzzle | Puzzles Wiki original form, no answers (linked)
Zebra Puzzle - Wikipedia good statement, but has the solution.
Many of the following make substitutions, especially brands and pets
Who own the Zebra?
Who owns the zebra? | New Philosopher cigarette brands -> car types
Zebra puzzle - Rosetta Code solutions in various languages, including echolisp.
The racket solution uses a logic-programming language, which isn't helpful for j
Shows program output, so not a good place to start.
: N encountered the cow again, and drove over to the owner's house. (owner's wife)
Brenda said that the cow (generally called cowcow) isn't aggressive, she just goes up
to people asking for skritches. She also ignores the electrified fence. B has been
trying to persuade her husband to get rid of the beast. Gave N his number.
* fridge filters arrived. Installed one. -> still leaks. Probably a matter for an
appliance repair person at this point.
* _4_-5-pm life insurance. I have until Oct. 31 to decide (actually enough before then
to get a premium in); another 90 days with a new (medical) statement of insurability
* 15min: install new cupholder on Colleen's walker. Same kind as the the scooter's
* 15min: set up Colleen's new tablet. It's gorgeous; I should probably get the 8"
& 9:15ish go up to mailbox - needed a flashlight. And two trips, because I'd forgotten
to bring a bag the first time. Used phone both times; the flashlight in the Limewire
phone battery is worthless.
* 15min: install the last two coat hooks. Naturally they're slightly different. Grump

0930Sa
* up 6:05; ;
* called Container Store -- again. -> (agent) Angel said she'd call back after looking
into it. We'll see. -> It actually shipped a week ago and UPS lost it. Was supposed
to have been delivered yesterday.
* 10am builder for consultation
* finish updating kat's resume. Set up bare repo under ~chaoswolf:git
* menu planning
* using the gas fireplace to get a little extra heat. And because we can.
* 15min: took out some recycling and garbage. The "dining room" is looking a lot less
cluttered.
* 15min: dinner: Bear Creek chicken noodle soup with added leftover chicken and 'shrooms
* 15min: swapped blue plates (which are heavy and nobody uses them) with the blue bowls
(which are large, and many people prefer them despite being heavy)

(copied from 1001Su)
o Grocery shopping:
large (baking) and small (roasting) potatoes, whole chicken, carrots,
celery, other roots, salad greens, eggs, milks, kid bread, chicken
breasts, ground beef, burger buns, English muffins, fresh mozzarella,
coffee, summer sausage (2 beef, 1 Armour), yogurt,

1002Mo-08Su menu planning
o Sunday loaded baked potatoes
o Monday roasted chicken; roasted root veggies; stovetop stuffing; gravy
make 4x recipe of matzoh ball batter, put in fridge
o Tuesday chicken soup with matzoh balls; egg salad sandwiches
o Wednesday hamburgers with buns; green salad
o Thursday chicken fajitas/tacos/whatever
o Friday cheddar+broccoli soup (mix; not kosher); sandwiches
o Saturday date night/scrounge