Dept. of Not-White Noise

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 05:04 pm
kaffy_r: Choi San of Ateez (ateezsanpretty)
Overly Loud Music in Ear Buds: Threat or Menace?*

It's been a minute since I last posted. Not, like, a real long minute, but a metaphorical minute nonetheless. For the last few days, it's been dank and grey here in Chicago, and the stress levels at Casa kaffy_rbob continue to be somewhere between Defcon 3 and 2, for all the reasons previously recited at tedious length. 

When that happens, or continues happening, my go-to stress reliever, the one that effectively cuts my ability to get things done, but possibly saves a sliver of my sanity, is to put my ear buds in, and blast SKZ or Ateez at skull-rattlingly unhealthy levels right into my brain. It's a good thing that's actually a very bad thing, but I don't really care. If my hearing wasn't damaged by standing on a stage between very loud amplifiers, then my rock and roll card needs to be revoked. 

But my stress level is now closer to Defcon 3, which is a bit of a relief. We finally realized that the idea of trying to balance Bob's permanent residence application at the same time as getting the house ready to sell and finding someplace to live in N. S., and getting decent movers who understand getting things across the border was stupid. 

We're going to tell the movers who keep bothering us (admittedly because we contacted them first) and our very patient real estate agent that everything will be put on hold until the application is completed, in, and Bob gets accepted for permanent residence. I'd originally fought the idea, thinking that we could actually handle everything at once. I'm very glad that Bob convinced me otherwise. 

So perhaps I won't have to turn my ear buds up to 11 for the next couple of days. 



* and if you get that reference, congratulations - you've joined the "older than dirt, and still hipper than the room" club.


Dept. of Canada

Monday, 28 April 2025 06:08 pm
kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
Election Night 

I'm just dropping in to say that I'm spending the evening locked in to CBC's live coverage of Canada's election. Probably switching from coffee to soju around 8 p.m., Chicago time, as I wait to see if the Liberal Party wins 172 seats to have a majority government.

Just a reminder, although I'm sure that most of my f'list is aware of this, that Canada runs on a parliamentary system. We don't directly vote the top of the ticket, in this case the person who becomes Prime Minister. The government comprises the majority of ridings (which are like American districts), in a majority government, or becomes a minority government with a plurality of ridings. 

Although, if I were living in Canada, I'd probably vote for the New Democratic Party generally, I'd be voting Liberal tonight. We - Canadians and Canada - can't afford Pierre Polievre or his Conservative Party. Carney has experience with That Man (and even Poilievre doesn't want to be connected to the latter. This morning, he told 45/47 to butt out of Canada's election) and he's at least 1,000 percent more intelligent than 45/47, and even though he's definitely a centrist corporatist, that's a tad different than it is in the U.S.

So, yes, I'll be watching. And crossing my fingers. Elbows the fuck up, Canada!


kaffy_r: Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki scrubs the floor in animation (Kiki scrubs)
Tuesday Positivity

I told Bob this afternoon that rather than dwell on things I'd hoped to do but hadn't managed to, I'd focus on the things I did manage to tackle, no matter how small. He approved. 

1. I managed to take pictures of our three page application for membership in a co-op that runs a (very) affordable set of apartments in my old home town. I know it because my Nana was one of the first people to live there back in the late 1970s. My brother sent me the application, and I finally completed it, and both Bob and I signed it. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that it doesn't allow pets, so we'll no doubt turn down an invitation if we ever get one. Mac breezily assured me that "no one pays attention to that," which illogical comment I failed to take issue with. Who knows? Maybe he's right. I emailed the co-op with the three page attachments, but I also left a message on their answering machine, asking if they'd prefer a snail mail version. I can do that if they prefer. 

2. I got into email contact with a woman I'm going to do a profile on for the rich suburban private school I've done work for before. I'll wait to hear back from her, and I look forward to doing the interview and writing the story, because their assignments are always both interesting and remunerative. I told Bob that if I can get it done in time, it would pay for about 2/3rds of our IRS bill. 

3. I cleaned the bathroom sink drain with baking soda and boiling water, something that needs to be done from time to time. It's always fun to see the stuff boil up and knock disgusting black goop off the pipe. 

4. I took down the outer shower curtain and put it through the washer, something I've wanted to do for a few days. 

5. I contacted Canada Pension, to find out how I can complete and send in a Canadian tax return; turns out I actually have to contact Canada Revenue, but the nice young man (aren't they all young?) gave me a couple of numbers to call over there. I'm going to put that on the back burner, since I don't need to send a return in before April 30. I have to tackle immigration stuff first, and that's my big job tomorrow; Bob's going to help me. 

6. And finally, I have manfully resisted being irritated about hearing from the computer repair place yesterday; getting the keyboard replaced will cost more than $300, although our downpayment when we left it in their hands cuts that by $75. They won't get the new keyboard for "between 7 and 10 days" ... so here I am with my jury-rigged system until then. 

*continues to manfully resist being irritated, since it won't help*

I hope everyone's Tuesday went well. I did enjoy watching the splashdown of the SpaceX capsule that brought the two stranded astronauts home, and that in and of itself was something that made me smile today. 
kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
Liberal Party Leadership Convention

Mark Carney won. He's a bit corporatist, a bit centrist - but then again, he's Canadian, which means here in the U.S. he'd be a leftist. And he's ready to fight. I'm so proud of my country, and I'm not even a Liberal voter. (I'd be an NDP voter if I was back home.)

Elbows Up!!

 

kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
... Plus Non-Canadian Positivity

First - Happy Flag Day, Canada! I'm old enough to remember the arguments and debates about which potential Canadian flag should win. I was about 10, but for some reason I recall hearing older kids (sixth graders? Junior high kids? Possibly; the memory is kind of fuzzy) talking about it. I remember liking one that had three maple leaves and blue side columns; I think I thought having just two colors was boring. These days, however, I'm glad we went with the flag we now have. 

Mind you, Canadians never seemed to have the flag worship that Americans have. At least not until now. (Fifty-first state? Not bloody likely. Suck it, Donny.) That may have something to do with the Canadian psyche. But it's a good flag. 

And today, I'm particularly proud of it. 


As for other things I've felt positive about today, I put another chapter of "Gleaning Musutachi" up over at 
[community profile] originalkaffy_r , after a long period of inactivity. I've got a second chapter ready to go tomorrow. 

I listened to some non-Stray Kids/general Kpop music today. (I know ... alert the press!) Some Keola Beamer, because I'm a sucker for his beautiful Hawaiian slack key guitar. Here, have some! 

 


And ending the day on a completely different - and exhilarating - Patti Smith in 1979. Damn. What a beautiful woman. What a beautifully brutal  performer
kaffy_r: Japanese wood print of snowncovered bridge (Bridge in winter ukiyo-e)
Temperature: 17F, Feels Like 2F

But Weather Underground promises that we'll be up to the balmy 20s tomorrow - what's that you say? Well, sure, we'll have wind chills in the single digits. But the 20s! I'm going to focus on that. 

I don't have a lot to talk about right now, and I need to respond to comments in my last post, but I did want to note that Biden's final good deed (at least until he - I hope - gives blanket pardons to the folks That Man plans to go after in the first 5 minutes after he takes the oath of office) was finally helping negotiate a large-scale cease fire in Gaza. He should have done it months and months ago, but I hope he's outmaneuvered Bibi this one time. 

Biden ... one of the better presidents we've had in recent decades, and one of the better presidents who occasionally fucked up big-time (Merrick Garland, I'm looking at you.) I'll miss him, though. I'm a former centrist who can still understand why people make the mistake of being centrist today, and Joe's one of them. 

I'm thinking of deactivating my Xitter account on the 20th. I sure as hell won't be watching That Man slime his way into The Oval Office.

wrt to the move, I'm going to fill out an application for Tideways, the senior living co-op that my Nana lived in before her death, since my brother sent it to me. When he did so, he mentioned that Mum had an application in, and was given several opportunities to get a unit there, "but she chose another path." I know why: Tideways forbids pets, and Mum had her beloved Toy and Liam that she would never have given away. It's a shame, but we're like Mum; we're not abandoning Carter. 

One of my condo building neighbors is going to try to get me in touch with a friend of his, who described the friend as "a brilliant realtor." Once I've gotten a couple of larger home improvements done, I hope I get this gentleman and perhaps one or two other real estate agents to do a walk-through of our place, to give us a range of potential sale prices. 

Still listening to SKZ, and I've begun to listen to at least one more male K-Pop group, Ateez. They're good, even if they don't have quite the creative control the Kids have. I also need to go back and relisten to Black Pink, and start listening to New Jeans on the distaff side. 

And that's all for now. 


kaffy_r: A Dreamwidth Sheep w/Canadian flag (Canadian Dream Sheep)
Odd Stories, Wonderful Stories

I've had these tabs open for a bit and I thought I'd share them. One's very odd, and I wish I knew if anyone has been able to rescue the poor deer from its fashionable vest. I saw the second - a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary - on the CBC site. I inadvertently closed that tab and worried that the CBC would turn off access to the documentary to non-Canadian viewers, since it doesn't usually allow people outside the country to access items that aren't tiny news clips. Luckily, it turns out the documentary is now on YouTube. Huzzah! (The documentary is particularly wonderful for me, since the young fashion designer is from Nova Scotia.)

So here's the link to the story about the deer

And here's the YouTube documentary, under a cut. 
Read more... )
kaffy_r: A Dreamwidth Sheep w/Canadian flag (Canadian Dream Sheep)
Odd Stories, Wonderful Stories

I've had these tabs open for a bit and I thought I'd share them. One's very odd, and I wish I knew if anyone has been able to rescue the poor deer from its fashionable vest. I saw the second - a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary - on the CBC site. I inadvertently closed that tab and worried that the CBC would turn off access to the documentary to non-Canadian viewers, since it doesn't usually allow people outside the country to access items that aren't tiny news clips. Luckily, it turns out the documentary is now on YouTube. Huzzah! (The documentary is particularly wonderful for me, since the young fashion designer is from Nova Scotia.)

So here's the link to the story about the deer

And here's the YouTube documentary, under a cut. 
Read more... )
kaffy_r: Pic of Bang Chan, Han & Changbin of Stray Kids (3racha)
Thursday's Child Has Far to Go

Do you want to know how badly wired my brain has been lately? I was convinced that Thanksgiving was this week. I kept looking at my Google calendar, and wondering why the holiday, which takes place on Thursday, was taking place on Saturday. There it was, "Labor Thanksgiving Day" noted on Saturday! 

Bob reminded me today that Thanksgiving is indeed on Thursday. Next Thursday. But, but - it says here on my Google Calendar that Satur-

Oh. 

I have "Japanese holidays" turned on For Reasons. And Labor Thanksgiving Day is a Japanese holiday. Perhaps the "Labor" part of the holiday name should have twigged me to that. Sigh. The excuse "I had a lot on my mind" only obtains if I actually have a mind present and accounted for. And as the probably (and rightly) problematic main character of the Zippy the Pinhead comic said in one of his uncomfortably surreal outings, "My brain is on vacation in the Carlsbad Caverns." 

Still, I managed to complete all but one interview for my latest news feature, and submit an invoice for the magazine article. (The latter had to be submitted twice, since I realized, moments after Gmail's "undo" ability had expired, that I'd submitted an invoice for one of my earlier magazine articles. Cue an immediately apologetic email with the proper invoice attached. I'm trying to figure out how long my brain is going to enjoy the beauties of the caverns ....

I've been bitterly amused to learn that Stray Kids are performing at Wrigley Field in June, an event that promises to be a 3 hour concert. 

Just after we've made our decision, and every spare dime is now going into savings for the northward journey; no Christmas/Holiday presents for anyone and we're going to ask people not to give us gifts. And probably no holiday cards, which I'm going to miss doing. Reader, I am disappoint.


kaffy_r: Press shot of pretty Bang Chan (Pretty Bang Chan)
Welcome to the Working Week

Tomorrow I'll be working on a quick for-money story, and invoicing the last feature I did for the folks who pay very, very well. Then I'm going to try to bake some cookies, and figure out a healthy supper for Bob and me. And possibly work on my fiction. 

I'll also be reading up on some of the expected changes to Medicare in 2025. For at least as long as we'll be here in 2025, we need to get as much bang for our buck as possible. We have a video call on Tuesday with our very nice, and very good, medical insurance rep., and I want to understand as much about our potential choices as I can. Our current Medicare Part G plans have increased their monthly premium costs over 2024, and if we can, we'd like to check out some options. 

Ah, the glamorous life of senior citizens. 

Bob is in considerable neck and shoulder pain right now, as his last spine area injection has pretty much worn off. Luckily, he'll be getting a new shot on Friday. Once that takes, he'll be able to focus more on setting up our moving game plan. I'm thinking of putting together a flow chart so we can keep track of what we need to get done, and when. 

I have only the slightest idea of how to do that, but I put together something of the like to keep the plot of my second fanfic novel from going off the rails. It wasn't pretty, but it worked, so I may try that cack-handed version of a flow chart for this much more important task. 

I've been having fun watching as the number of people joining Bluesky climbed from about 17.5 million early Saturday to more than 19 million as of Sunday night. I'm also having fun wandering around my new social platform of choice. (I'll probably still hang some on Threads, but as someone said over on Xitter, he wasn't going to swap one billionaire-owned site for another billionaire-owned site. Makes sense. 

And we talked to Andy and Em last night. We told them our decision, and it broke my heart to see Andy's face during the subsequent discussion. I have a feeling that my heart will be breaking for him a lot. For a lot of other things, obviously, but he is my beloved son, and I hate hurting him. 

Fuck that man and his clowncar of fascists, neo-nazis, and would-be Gilead Commanders. I wanted to die in my home, in Chicago, in my adopted country. 

But to end on that ... nah. 

I'm still bopping to Stray Kids. I'm also checking in on a couple of other groups. KPop is fun. There. That's better. 
kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
Never Forget



This was our past, and it is still with us.

In Flanders Fields
John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
        In Flanders fields.



And 
[personal profile] kerravonsen  was right; this announces our present and future all too well.

The Second Coming
William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst   
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   
The darkness drops again; but now I know   
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? 
kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
Thank you, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

I've had these three stories opened in my tabs for too long. I think each one is fascinating. So have a look if you'd like. 

Thank you for coming to my not-ranty second Sunday post. 

An elderly wolf beats the odds

Beavers and Komodo Dragons

A vulture population crash in India and the human deaths that followed

Dept. of Travel

Thursday, 7 September 2023 04:16 pm
kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
Canada Ho!

So I'm on my way to Manitoulin Island, via Sudbury, Ont., to attend the Friday interment of my dad's sister Barbara Marion. She died in 2021, but interment of her ashes wasn't scheduled until now. My brother Mac, who has kept in touch with Dad's side of the family for years, unleashed his magic superpower on me - he steamrolled over my objections to going, and paid for my airline tickets. (I think I've told folks before that he is both  irresistible force and immovable object. It was foolish of me to even try to resist.)

A bit more about the trip. )

Bob and I got to Midway this morning, but not without some icky drama; warning, TMI, if you're not inclined to read about unexpected stomach ailments, just stop reading here.

TMI, possibly )
kaffy_r: Picture of Arcane character Mylo in listening pose (Mylo listens)
Another Post in 24 Hours - w00t!!1!

Read more... )
And finally, I'm still sad about the death of Gordon Lightfoot. He lived a long time, beat a lot of his demons, and continued being one of Canada's Iconic Bards. Lightfoot's songs were the soundtrack to some of my most memorable life events. He's part of the warp and weft of my life, and of Canada's culture. So when I learned he'd died, it really did feel like a hit in my gut, no matter how full a life he'd lived. 

Here are some of the songs that he wrote and are part of Canada. (The final one's a bit problematic, since it doesn't look at the indigenous people from whom the land was stolen, or the hundreds of Chinese immigrants who died helping build the railroad - but it still captures something of the Canadian experience, and it still raises the hair on the back of my neck.): 






kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
Specifically, Back on the Citizenship Bicycle

In my last post, I focused so much on weather worries that I forgot to mention that I'm going to try to take another run at becoming an American citizen.

It's an expensive proposition (more than $700), so I may have to abandon it if the ultrasound we need for one of our kitties is too expensive (my previous run was hamstrung by a $900 cracked engine block replacement).

And, as I did in my first effort, I feel tremendously uncomfortable taking this step - I still don't like the idea of taking the oath with my fingers crossed behind my back (it requires oath-takers to eschew allegiance to other countries, and I remain a Canadian citizen).

But, again as I felt the first time I assayed this, I realized that it isn't supposed to be an easy step; it's just the right one.


Dept. of Wonderful

Monday, 1 August 2022 02:01 pm
kaffy_r: A Dreamwidth Sheep w/Canadian flag (Canadian Dream Sheep)
Glorious Visit 

I'm sitting in Toronto, waiting for my flight back to Chicago. I'm tired, a little wired, and really, really happy I went to my 50-year high school reunion. 

I hope to share stories, and pictures, and thoughts, but I think it's going to have to wait until I'm back in the land of pizza and politics. 

What I'll say for now is this: don't take it as gospel that school reunions are to be avoided like the plague. That's probably true in many cases - but you know? Sometimes, and maybe a lot of times, it isn't. Sometimes reunions are just brilliant. 

More to come ....
kaffy_r: Heyer on dressing for dinner (One Must Dress for Dinner)
I Aten't Dead

But it has been a while since I put pen to pixel here. I don't have a lot to say, but even babbling can be useful as a way to get back up on the bicycle, so I'll probably babble a bit via a quick list. 

Firstly: only two days until I leave for Nova Scotia, for my 50 year high school reunion.

I'm excited - and also amused at how the visit threw me, and a couple of my friends, back into the land of teenage fashion uncertainty. To wit: about a week and a half ago, I began to worry about which outfits I should wear to two of the weekend's events. I decided to ask my friends what they might advise me to wear, which, of course, amounted to doing what one did in high school; "What are you gonna wear to the [fill in the blank]?" In the email I sent, I acknowledged how silly this was, only to have two of my friends email back to say they'd been asking each other the exact same thing. We coordinated, and now I know what I'll be wearing to each event.* Heh. 

In the "nibbled to death by ducks" department, I got out of a shower and discovered that my left ear is now completely blocked. It tends to do that regularly, but I hadn't noticed any, you should pardon the expression, build-up to the current situation, but I've got a walk-in appointment at our local immediate care center to rectify it. There is no way I'm going to get on a plane with one blocked ear. 

Second: my right thumb, the one I use to an inordinate degree whilst using my trackball, finally decided to give me royal shit, after 13 years of, as I said, an inordinate amount of use. I'm glad it's just the thumb, and not the entire wrist and forearm, as it would likely have been were I using a regular mouse. Still, daily life and chores without the use of one's primary opposable thumb has proven less than optimal. 

We're dealing with a fair amount of heat in Chicago, but it's nothing like what the UK and too many areas of the North American continent are suffering now. We were warned, weren't we?

Enough. I'm off to rescue my ear. 









*including, I kid you not, a (and I'm quoting here) pig roast. For that event, I'll wear some tee shirt with a progressive or vaguely obnoxious comment on it, and jeans that can be ... ah ... pig roasted upon.
kaffy_r: A Dreamwidth Sheep w/Canadian flag (Canadian Dream Sheep)
February is For Freezes

Read more... )
kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
Back In the USA

Just like Chuck Berry said; or at least we're one flight from Chicago. Sitting here in Toronto's Billy Bishop airport, awaiting a 1:07 p.m. or so call to our plane. 

It was a wonderful trip. More, when I'm home.

Dept. of Travel

Monday, 4 October 2021 04:03 pm
kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
Very Rushed Update, Eh?

Bob and I have been here in Canada since Sept. 30, and are due to come back to the States on Wednesday. We made it across the border; everything was copacetic. We've had our COVID tests to get us back into the USA, so that's done. 

More importantly, I've had time with my brother, and time with long-missed friends and seen long-ago pictures of us as children, hiked (!) a short trail on the Atlantic shore, visited the graves of my mother, my grandmother and my grandfather, had lobster, completed wills for BB and myself with regard to a Canadian bank account of ours, and experienced oh, so many more things. 

Unfortunately, I've been without much internet connectivity beyond my phone's hotspot, and I've kept that to a minimum because damn, it's expensive. Today I had a little time in my favorite Wolfville coffee shop., and its wi-fi. I've done some necessary banking, booked my airline tickets for next year's 50th high school reunion before I could change my mind. 

And perhaps within a few days, I'll be able to sign on at home and tell you more.
kaffy_r: close up of Maia from book cover (close)
Trip Prep

Prep under here. )

Dept. of Canada

Tuesday, 31 August 2021 09:08 pm
kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
Yep, We're Going

I got our tickets to and from Nova Scotia today; the trip runs Sept. 30-Oct. 6. The Canadian consulate here in Chicago cleared up one of my questions on COVID-19 regulations up there; I got information regarding what we need to have in place to return to the U.S. from the U.S. government site and the CDC site; and I've checked the Nova Scotia government requirements, so that's all done. 

The rest of the day was an exercise in frustration regarding medical stuff and condo association stuff. Both situations have left me mightily pissed off; I'm going to sleep on the condo association thing so that the email I send off to them about that particular problem doesn't start and end with "fuck off, you punctilious assholes." That would get me nowhere. 

I'm not even going to think about the medical frustration. That's going to be a problem for the next 10 days, but we'll get through it somehow. 

I'm going to focus on the things I was successful in. 

Dept. of Canada

Thursday, 1 July 2021 05:32 pm
kaffy_r: Animated Canadian flag (Canada!)
A Sorrowful Canada Day

As a Canadian expat in Chicago, one who long ago committed to living in the U.S., I used to write heartfelt paeans to my adopted country every July 4. I haven't done that over the last few years, or at least my paeans have been a lot less heartfelt. It's hard to write them once you realize how deep the fault lines in the American House run.

I used to love writing heartfelt paeans to my birth country as well,  and that lasted much longer than my July 4 enjoyments. Canada, after all, did not have those kinds of fault lines. 

Until it did.

Or rather, until Canada and Canadians were forced to reckon with Canadian fault lines. With dead and disappeared Indigenous women and girls. With killers gone unpunished or even uncharged despite the bodies of Indigenous men, women, and youths. With hundreds of unmarked graves, harboring tiny skeletons all of which bear silent witnesses to government-sponsored or abetted racism and cruelty. With other racist and xenophobic violence giving the lie to our national superiority complex. 

And here it is, July 1 again, the official 154th birthday of the country as it's generally understood by those of us with a shit-tonne of privilege.. 

I can't help loving my birth country. And yes, it has some wonderful national attributes to pair with its stunning geography. 

But it's hard. I hope it doesn't get any harder. 

Dept. of Monday

Monday, 7 June 2021 08:49 pm
kaffy_r: painting of Maia in profile in belle epoch style (Jeweled Maia)
Made It Through Monday Quite Nicely

Things that make a list: 
  • We still haven't been able to contact our maintenance lady, so the curtain rod remains down.
  • I have come to the (potential) realization that I might have some sort of lactose intolerance. Ice cream has certainly treated me horribly recently. An experiment with non-dairy alternatives did not cause the same problems. I think I'll check out using milk instead of soy beverage in my coffee to see if that has some sort of similar reaction. It may just be the universe telling me I shouldn't be downing job lots of ice cream. 
  • After prodding by my brother, I checked with Canada Pension to see if I might be due some Canada Pension Plan payments, since I did work in Canada for six years before coming down here. After an hour on hold Friday and a mere 40 minutes on hold today, I learned that I could be due both CPP and something from Canada's Old Age Security plan. Not much, but it's honestly more than I expected; it will be a couple hundred a month (Canadian) that I can put into my Canadian bank account. That's a little extra security. It will take months to a year to actually happen, but at least it's in the works.
  • Andy has started to get a couple of paying photography gigs outside his regular job, which is a little financial security for him, and he's definitely talented enough to make a go of it. Oh, and we're one month from Baby Due Date. AAAAiiieeee!
  • I had a delightful dream last night that included newfound fannish friends, a night sky lit up by strange fireworks, by whose lights I could see hundreds of night flying birds, and a bed where my husband and my son, back to being a child, were asleep, surrounded by kittens. I want to use the imagery of the fireworks and the birds in something ....
  • And Joe Manchin is an asshole. 

Dept. of Kittehz!

Tuesday, 23 February 2021 04:08 pm
kaffy_r: (Rabbit Mom 2)
Not, Perhaps, Wise, but Definitely Kind

Here; have this unmistakably Canadian cat story from the CBC, with many thanks to 
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll  for alerting me to it.

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kaffy_r: The TARDIS says hello (Default)
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