Evil

Not a bad week for pics. Shep is very used to the crutches, Simon not so much. 

Shep has a built in chin rest for car rides. He has to be part of the pack. 

Plotting evil. 

Looking innocent, but plotting to get near Shep's food. 

....with a pretend stretch. 

Spa day for Bailey. 

Shep Attached. 

He hung with me (or I with him) while we had workers in the house. This was his look when I'd stop petting him. 

Stalk!!!!

Song by: Interpol

We Care a Lot

I have no great words of wisdom about coming out. (oh, it's National Coming Out Day.) I have posted before about coming out any number of times. 14 years ago (!!!)  I did my submission for the "It Gets Better" campaign.  How has it been that long??

I know next to nothing about how kids come out these days. It feels like there is more of it happening. It feels like it's happening at a younger age. It feels like it is more prevalent. I have zero stats on this. Absolutely nothing to back this up. Maybe social media just exposes it more than before. 

I would venture to guess coming out is not an easier process. 

Yes, that sounds counterintuitive, but I don't think it is. 

It is possible it's a more welcoming environment and there are a lot more resources available to kids, but the mental gymnastics that go on in our heads leading up to that announcement can range somewhere between daunting to horrific. People might make it look easier than it was, but the mental struggle is real. 

Still, more tv shows, movies, exposure shows it and while it might not be more accepted than in the past, it seems more tolerated. That sounds horrible, but probably true. The 2016 election until now has just been eye-opening on the hate that is really out there.  ....and I might be sugar-coating it when I say 'tolerated'. 

I think some people are coming out to spite the likes of the GOP, but the other half are hiding due to the likes of the GOP. It's hard to believe that conversion therapy is still a discussion topic, but it is. In Ohio, the Right is vilifying Sherrod Brown of his stance / votes for anything pro-trans for 'children'. They stop short of having sex change operations in schools, but just barely. 

I can see why anyone of any age wouldn't want to come out at this point. I can also see why they would - just for the proverbial middle finger. 

I've working  my way through Ted Lasso. Yes, that seems like a leap, but stick with me. And stick with the clip - it's long. There are shorter versions, but I think the longer doesn't cut out some parts that are important that do not appear in the other clips. 

And the character of Ted tends to have rambling stories, that first annoyed me but have become very endearing, so please stick with it when one of the professional football team comes out. 

The clip starts after it is inferred Colin has just come out to the team. You can search for before and after clips should you want, but this is the one that speaks to coming out and the support one should have. 

I've seen it a number of times, each one makes me tear up. 

Song by: Faith No More

Cooking with Blobby

Food. I'm all about the food lately, it seems. 

With me being incapacitated, I've had some time to stray off our normal rotations of dinner. This is good for me, and good for us. There is a certain comfort in the good old stand-bys, but it is also good to not tire of them. 

And it's great to attempt new things, even if they don't alway work out. 

This one, in both of our estimations, worked out. 

I have a few things to work out on this, but I'll address those as we go. I can totally see doing this again - but better. 

It is all fairly simple. I didn't have to go out and buy any ingredients we didn't have. As things come together and cook, clean-up happens along the way, so it's pretty much done except for your final pan and whatever you use to plate your fud. 

Full disclosure: I forgot to put the spinach in the above picture.  Sorry. 

Ingredients

6 Chicken Thighs (boneless/skinless) 

1 French Onion Soup Mix 

3T Olive Oil 

2 Onions, chopped (or 1 large one - like I used)

1.5 cups Long Grain Rice 

2 cups Chicken stock 

3 tbsp sour cream (could use heavy cream or cream cheese) 

1 large handful of spinach leaves 

I forgot to take an image of my onions. But I'm sure you get the idea. 

In a large frying pan, sauté onions with some butter/oil and some salt. Once cooked through (about 7 minutes), remove from pan and set aside. 

Coat your chicken with French onion soup mix.  Next time I'd use a larger bowl to do this. In this shallow bowl things did not evenly distribute. 

Heat 3tbsp of oil in the same large frying pan and sear chicken on both sides (about 2 minutes each side) until nice and golden. Remove from pan. 

There was probably enough oil / butter from the onions. Next time I would not add more oil (or at least not a much) for the chicken. I think the amount I ended up with kept the chicken searing as well as it should. It all turned out ok and all, but you know.......searing will help with the flavour. 

In the same pan, add the rice and cook for 1 minute, stirring. 

Then add the stock, sour cream and salt some and bring to a simmer (3-4 minutes). 

The sour cream will eventually mix better, but at first it looks a bit curdled. Stir or whisk if you please. 

Add the onions and chicken back into the pan; place some spinach into the pan and then cover and continue to simmer for 20-25 minutes

You don't have to stir a thing, not really. The rice is below the spinach and chicken, just make sure to get what you want. 

These thighs were huge - almost breast sized. Joyce DeWitt breasts, not Suzanne Sommers ones. 

The chicken was done well. Temps higher than it should have been,  but still moist. The rice, save one bikte, was cooked well. The one, slightly undercooked. 

The onion soup mix was fine. There was one bit that was a little overpowering. I believe that stemmed from the smaller bowl in which it was mixed. I don't think things were distributed as evenly as it could have been. 

It's a nice warm dish - we had our first really cool fall evening, so it was nicely timed. 

Hater

Back in the - ugh - 80s, on the original Tracey Ullman Show, when Fox was a new network that only had four shows (seriously) and they were only on Sunday (seriously), I always remember part of one of her skits and think about it often.

I mean, I remember others, and I don't remember this entire skit. Ullman played a hispanic woman who got into a tiff with a business man - Hugh Jader. He was reluctant to tell her his name, but does, and with a heavy, I'm guessing Puerto Rican accent (and because of the accent), she calls him "Mr. Jew Hater". 

Yes, I don't think this could be shown now, and I looked, and finally found a grainy clip. But it's Fox - I suppose they'd show it on their "news" station without a second thought.

But I frequently remember Ullman's character going {paraphrasing, I think} "well excuse me, Mr. Jew Hater!!". While I didn't really find it funny then, like Mr. Hader not wanting to tell her his name, we both saw the joke coming. 

So, BLOTUS.  THAT fucktard. 

VonShitsinpants said he would “remove the Jew haters” if reelected, whilst speaking at an event commemorating the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.

A. Untrue. 

B. He, once again, used his dog whistle. 

Granted, the "man" is not known for elocution, but anyone knows there are other ways to phrase anti-semitism. I dunno, maybe like saying "anti-semitism". 

He's made it clear he does not find Jew haters to be bad. We can start in Charlottesville where called them "very fine people".  We can even take it to present day when he said he wants to bring Elon Musk into his administration. Musk who has continually shows his Jew hating ways. 

A. is untrue because if he wanted to get rid of Jew haters, well, that would me getting rid of Musk......oh, and himself. And I didn't quite hear how he was going to "get rid of" them. The haters, that is. 

Will there be camps?  Will they get there via trains? 

I mean, BLOTUS must hate his son-in-law. And his daughter. Of course, we all do, but not because they are Jewish. There are tons of reasons to hate them. But how can BLOTUS stand it that he's related to a heeb? It always confounded me that both of them just sat there and took it for four years. I get Steven Miller is a self-loathing Jew / Human, so he's fine with BLOTUS hating Jews. 

The core of what he said, to me is still with B.  The dog whistle. 

Jew Hater. 

and 'get rid of'. 

It is far more than a test balloon. He's done those in the past. To me, it's a call to his troops followers. His actual Jew Haters. It never crossed my mind for a millisecond that he was ever considering protecting Jewish people.  Ever. 

I gotta give him this, he sets himself up well. He phrases things that he could plausibly deny, while still getting the job done. 

January 6th comes to mind. 

I need this man to die. 

Song by: Everclear

Like a Hurricane

You know, the GOP makes it hard for me to care about anyone who is hit by Hurricane Helene, or the upcoming Milton. 

They are more than just toying with people's devastation for the November election. But you know, since the majority of those people put those politicians in office, my heartstrings will only play so far and for so long. 

I simply amazes me that people will continually vote against their own interests. And if they think this round of storms is bad, just wait if VonShitsinPants get in office again and FEMA is neutered. BLOTUS has already made the "joke" that, (and I'm paraphrasing) "oh well, there will be more beach front property".  He cares not an iota about you. 

I will give it to the inland folks - to a degree - who never expected this kind of fuckuppery from mid-state and up into the mountains. It sucks to be them. But still...........climate change deniers live everywhere, don't they. 

Pedophile Matt Gaetz (no, I'm not even putting "alleged" in front of that) publicly whined about not getting enough financial support for the "Florida man in grave need of assistance....". 

First off - he wrote the Tweet "to Congress". This might surprise even him, but Matt Gaetz is a member of Congress. I don't think he really knows how the House and Senate work, but you know....he's trolling the Claire's Boutiques and study halls for a "date". 

Secondly - it is no coincidence he singled out a gender - because there is a requirement to stick to GOP by-laws on not mentioning women unless court-ordered. 

Lastly - and this kind of really super important:  there was a FEMA bill up in front of the House to the tune of $18+ BILLION dollars. Gaetz voted AGAINST it. Every Florida GOP representative voted AGAINST it.   

So FUCK YOU FLORIDA is 100% what they said. 

Maybe they care about those grave Floridian men (I'm mean, not the women, obvi), but they don't care enough to faux make it look like the current administration isn't doing enough for "their" citizens. 

The bill passed, no thanks to those fucktards. But you see how they're skewing the story and these people are hurt and in need and need someone to blame. ....and the GOP has given it to them, however incorrectly. 

Still, they'd rather jeopardize the bill and funding for their own so-called constituents (see, they don't really feel the represent anyone, if they did more things would go the way of public opinion) to get a soon to be dictator in office. 

The problem for the Floridas, North Carolinas and such are - these aren't new leaders who have duped their voting public. You know who these politicians are, how they vote, what they do - and yet, you keep fucking electing and re-electing them.  

My problem with these storms is the election. Mail / ballots not being sent out timely - if at all. People's houses obliterated and uninhabitable, unable to get their ballots, or to polling stations. Everyone is going to call 'foul' and extend this fucking election out well past even Georgia's hand count. 

Yes, these storms are horrific for these states. Towns literally wiped away. It's difficult to see all over the place - and still more to come later this week. Still, if I have to see another fucking picture of linemen restoring power and see the caption:  "they're doing g-d's work" I will barf. 

They most certainly are not. They're doing overtime, which in the same week BLOTUS said he'd fire people before they got to get OT and replace them with someone else. He refuses to pay OT. 

G-d's work WAS the hurricane. It's funny how they never think that. 

It is wake-up time for these voters. Not react time - which they will do with their ballot - but actual see who had done what for you and for how long and vote accordingly. 

I know it won't happen - and then it really will be on them. I'd like to be more compassionate, but it's been drained out of me these last years. 

Song by: Neil Young

My Music Monday

Still with the new music. Today's selection is better than last Monday, but how could it not be??

The Cure have a new album coming next month, their first since 2008! It might be the first disk of 2024 of which I'm truly anticipating. 

From what I can tell, it only might have eight songs, but their songs tend to go longer than what FM radio would like. The thing is, FM radio doesn't play the Cure really and XM doesn't seem to mind longer songs now and then. 

Going by their 2023 sold-out tour, people are still into the band. I am very sorry I didn't see them. 

The first release from the upcoming disk is called "Alone". It clocks in at almost seven minutes, the first half is music only. I'm loving the instrumental, which really does not deviate when lyrics are introduced. 

The song does not really break from Cure tradition. The music and lyrics are semi-bleak sounding. The band is not always like this but enough of the time that is what people think. But this is the music I like. 

The band, Robert Smith in particular, has not really changed. The voice is no different than it was 44 years. That's kind of amazing when you think of it. Smith is the only original member of the band, though one other person is just a year less than him. With all those changes, the band's sound has not changed drastically. 

I like "Alone". I'm looking forward to the new album. 

Truth

Troll Day !!!!

Much like Schrödinger's Cat, I will miss the time when I can stop posting these. Yet I will not miss it at all. 

I made an on-line comment that, "Shillbilly Vanilli WISHED he looked this butch".

Two days later, the GOP took heed.  

What a fucking bunch of snowflakes. 

The reality that any news organization (I guess other than Fox) would agree to not checking facts will continually leave me wondering who they report shit on a day-to-day basis. 

Save for time constraints - someone has to tell me WHY anyone wouldn't want things fact checked, I mean, besides the fucking obvious. 

Regina George: the gift that keeps on giving. 

THIS!    This this this this. 

....and this. 

Song by: New Order

Rusty Cage

We are Shep-lite today. When I can get on a cane and spend more time with him, I'm guessing more pic opportunities will present themselves. Simon, however, is always around - even though it's questionable if he likes me and for sure hates me when I'm on crutches. 

My sister-in-law's new shirt. 

Cat approved. 

This is about as close as I can get when on crutches. Him halfway up the stairs; me not on the stairs.

....and out of reach. 

Someone smells chicken. 

Someone got chicken. 

RUSTY. 

Well, that's what I have named him. I've been seeing him around, but the first time in our yard. I went out to greet him, but he wouldn't come near me. Might have been the crutches, might have been he's not socialized. I sat down on the ground to coax him, but got nothing. 

CLOSE UP

Bailey.  Snoozing by the light of the fish tank. 

Happy looking dog. 

Of course, staring at Dad #1.  

Cat people for Harris / Walz. 

The sign is now out on our lawn for all to see.  The sign cat reminds me of Sophie and Kylie. 

Song by: Johnny Cash

Tip Toe Thru the Tulips

On Monday, someone at the gym called me 'Tiny Tim'. 

I assumed it was because of my crutches, but as I typed the above line, I am now hoping it wasn't meant as a reference to the 1960's ukulele player who appeared on Laugh-In and the likes. 

A poor crippled boy whose father's boss is a penny pinching prick would have to be better, no? 

Yes, I hobble into the gym every day - even weekends now that I'm not running on those days - to get my hour in on the bike. 

What are the odds kids* these days even know who the falsetto / vibrato'ing Tiny Tim even was?  Or what Laugh-In was. Or the 60s!

Sock it to me, indeed. 

I did have my two week ortho follow-up this last Monday. Things seem to be going ok? So says the doc. I kept him for the full appointment time, peppering with questions and suggestions. 

First off - two more weeks (less now) on crutches, then transition to a cane. And starting now, I can do very limited weight bearing on my bad leg. I haven't really done that yet as I feel a few more days of nothing will help healing, no? 

Then I'll do a week on the cane before my next return. After that, I'll probably still have another week on the cane. We'll talk about returning to running after that and how I'm feeling. It'll be nice to be able to walk the dog and such with going to the cane. 

We focused on the stress fracture so much the last few weeks, this time I really talked about the 'complex tear in the anterior labrum'.  That I'm less thrilled about, but that might be more my own angst vs reality.

Where the labrum in question resides, would result in pain in my left groin. I don't have pain there. Which is good. The bad is: labrums in fact do not repair on their own. Ever. The blood supply there is low and even surgery is less than optimal should it ever be needed at all.

He doesn't think it will. He said if he did 100 MRIs on men "my age" (ouch!), 50% of them would have torn labrums - they just don't know it. Like me. The pain I'm having isn't anywhere near the the labrum in question. And even before potential surgery (should it ever come to that) would be a steroid injection..................into the groin. 

I visibly winced at that. He laughed. Always funny when you're not the one getting it. 

We will see what the next 9-10 days brings. I still have some pain, but not as much. I know I'm not 100% compliant with 100% non-weight bearing. But it has only been two weeks. I didn't expect to be magically healed even if I had been fully compliant. 

Slow and steady, as they say. 

* anyone under 45. 

Song by: Tiny Tim

Rise

It's official: this is weird. 

While technically I did not hit 1,000,000 views for September, I still surpassed 5,000,000+ views on the first of this month. 

I'd like to say I'm popular, but I think we all know that is not the case. 

For those not paying attention, or not retaining 4-1-1, it took me 20+ years to hit 2 million views. It took me another year or so to hit 3. But now it's about 1 million per month for the last three months. 

I'd love to say it is my captivating writing, but again........we all know that is not the case. And while Shep and Simon are cute......it isn't them either. 

I have been watching the numbers and there are certainly patterns. 

This is a typical week. About 34-36k one day, 20k the next - and repeat. I can tell you on the 36k days, the numbers start to rise around 20:00 the evening before. 

You may or may not know that 710 rarely, if ever, reads this blog thing. He figures he lives a lot of it. And we rarely discuss it either. But I did mention the rise in numbers, and he was pretty quick to point out that it is probably AI. 

710 has been working more and more with AI at this job. He surmised that lots of AI things go out and just 'scrape' data and content on a daily basis and pulls it into their tools. 

Oh, if true, those poor poor suckers using my shitty posts to gather content to be reused elsewhere. And if we wondered where the downfall of the internet might be - look no further than my blog url. 

There are enough bloggers reading my stuff. What I don't know is if they are experiencing the same thing, or something similar. I mean, 710's theory is as good as anything I've conjured in my pea brain. However, I can't imagine the Chinese.....yes, the Chinese.....

....have singled out my blog and no one else's. 

The above is data from the last 3 months. I'm not sure why Hong Kong is separated from China. They got that back from the UK in 1997.  ....and they're really barely pulling their weight according to the paltry 878 hits. Even Romania is kicking their ass. 

There is high doubt that 1.8 million Chinese folks are reading my blog. I mean, I don't even do a lot of Asian cooking entries - and you gotta figure they can make it better without following my directions. The closest I come to Asian references are about / from Long Duck Dong from Sixteen Candles.....though now that I think about it, we did see Crazy Rich Asians a few years back. 

I assume most countries have an AI presence, so maybe it does all stand to reason. 

So, since hitting the big 5M, I'll be at almost another 100,000 by the time this publishes. I say it's weird, bu honestly it means nothing. Not in the big scheme of things. The WHOPR 2000 is reading my blog, not people.  ....but the WHOPR 2000 is probaby self-actualizing and probably laughs at my JD Vance put downs. 

Yeah.......that's it. 

Song by: Eddie Vedder

Cooking with Blobby

You know, sometimes I can be lazy making dinner. I like being creative and I don't mind cooking, but sometimes I'm just tired and don't want to think - which is kind of what the grill is for. 

It was a wet night and I just decided, hell, I never (well almost never) use the slow cooker. 710 has no idea where I even found it - though it's been in plain site since we moved. I just cook more than he. 

I decided to wing together - or so I thought - Honey Garlic Chicken. 

.....except we had no honey. Improvise. 

I Goooooogled substitutes and came up with maple syrup or brown sugar. I went with the former. It just seemed easier. 

Actually, the entire thing is easy. About 5-7 minutes of prep. And that's basically it. 

Ingredients 

4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs 

½ cup soy sauce 

½ cup ketchup 

⅓ cup honey or maple syrup

3 cloves garlic, minced 

1 teaspoon dried basil or dried oregano

Directions

Place chicken thighs at bottom of slow cooker. I seasoned with salt and pepper, as one does. 

In a bowl, mix the soy sauce, ketchup, maple syrup, garlic and oregano. 

Pour sauce over the chicken. 

Place lid on. Put slow cooker on high for 3-4 hours. 

DONE!

Well, I did make white rice and diced up a scallion for garnish. 

It's good. Tasted just fine. 710 liked it. Next time I might dish up two thighs per serving. They're not huge, but my appetite usually is. 

If you can wait the time for it to cook, it's pretty much set and forget. Letting you go about your business until it's time to eat. 

App of the Month

For all of you that get annoyed with the NYT game Connections (which I feature here back in 2023), and dislike or have an aversion to sports, the this is the game app for you!!

NYT has a new game in beta form - and as you can see, it's Connections: Sports Edition. 

When I sent the results of the first game to my friends (we play most of the NYT games daily), Jon came back with "you're making this up". 

He wishes. 

Jon might be sports illiterate. But this is possibly true of a lot of my reading audience. This is not a slam - just a statement of fact. I'm not certain. I use the word 'sportsball' a bit in my entries just to keep it generic enough for my readers. 

It isn't a lot different than non-sports related Connections. ....but we're only a few days in. I'm making a guess that the NYT is trying to snag a population who might not normally play their games. The Butch Crowd. It's certainly why I'm playing!

The version below shows one thing and not another. 

1. When first introduced last week, the game had a ticking clock. For the last three days that seems to have gone bye-bye. There was, and is, no timer on the original Connections. 

2. In the screen captures below, you see what you'd normally see in non-sports Connections. Words. But on certain days, there are not always words, but you might see a logo sprinkled in, as I did with the Detroit Tigers or the Washington Commanders. 

Your originally presented quiz. 

My first selection. 

Win!

I did not screen capture all selections because bandwidth I'm lazy.  But you get the idea. 

Mind you it's 2:07, but I had to set up and take screen shots too. And you know, I didn't want to get it wrong for my blog entry. 

Shareable results, just like the other game. 

So, finding the beta version might not be in everyone's menu?  I'm not certain if you just pay for the Games section if it is available to you. We have a Times subscription, so that is my frame of reference. 

If you're in, say Spelling Bee, in your upper left hand corner you'll see the three horizontal lines. 

Click on those.  It will bring you to the below menu. 

and BOOM - at the top, there it is. 

Click on it and have "fun".  Or, maybe you'll learn something. 

I said "maybe".