Behind the Mask

Image created by Meta AI

She was a black cat

And not just on Halloween 

“Please take off your mask”

He wanted to get to know 

Her true self or so he said 

~Did you ever let your lover see the stranger in yourself?~

Oh no not like that!

Truth failed to meet his desires

She put the mask on

He embraced her once again 

Claws unsheathed behind his back 

~*~

Tanka puente written for Tanka Tuesday’s Challenge No. 88 with a line from Billy Joel’s song “The Stranger” (1977) and an AI image to celebrate Black Cat Day (I love my sweet little Inky).

AI Makeover

Image generated by Nano Banana (free on Google)
using the below text and then tweaked by me

My name is Paula Light, and I live in Orange County, California, with Inky, my adorable black cat. I’m 65, and I work full time in a law office. I’m a mom, a grandma, a poet, a fiction writer, and a voracious reader. My books, such as Ghosted, Sidewalk Noodles, Going Dark, and more, are available on Amazon for Kindle.

My favorite types of books are Regency romances and thrillers, plus anything with or about animals. I’m also a movie fan and love good dramas and comedies, along with musicals, such as Mamma Mia. Game nights with friends are always fun, especially if we play Ticket to Ride! 

Some of my other pastimes include aerobics, puzzles, and blogging. The best way for me to spend an evening is curled up with a good book, a hot cup of tea, and my kitty. 

~*~

This post is in response to Reena’s Xploration Challenge 451, in which she asks us to write 6-10 sentences about ourselves and then use an AI program to generate an image from the text. I used the free Meta AI image generator and Google’s free Nano Banana to compare results. Meta included a puzzle and a game, which was nice, but Google got Inky exactly right, so I had to go with theirs. Besides, Meta made me look super old, while Google apparently thinks 65=45. Not gonna argue with that. I tweaked the image to use the actual names of my books on the table, delete the wedding band (had to ask twice), remove excess teacups, and add some cookies. Gotta have cookies!

Pachyderm Podge

Elephant frolicking in autumn leaves (Google AI)

I’m participating in Joyce’s Hodgepodge again this week by responding to the following questions.

1. What’s something you recently forgot to do? Is your memory these days more like a sieve or an elephant?

If I have forgotten to do something lately, I’ve already forgotten what it was! While my memory isn’t as great as it used to be, I still manage to do all the things I’m supposed to do. I sometimes forget things people say, but this isn’t new ~ I have never been a good auditory learner. I’ve also always been a little “face blind” and can more easily recall people’s names than their faces, especially actors. Overall though, my memory is more like an elephant than a sieve even now that I’m old.

2. Share a trick/ strategy you have to help you remember the things you need to remember.

Write it down! I make lists and lists and lists. I also put a kajillion reminders on my phone calendar. I probably would forget a lot of things if I didn’t write them down, particularly items I don’t do every day. For example, Inky gets a flea pill once a month on the 4th, which I would likely never remember if I didn’t get alerted by my phone. She hasn’t had fleas since she’s been with me, and she never goes outside, so there’s no reason to think about this issue, except I still want her to take the meds because I am paranoid about parasites. Sunday I received the alert… and gave her the pill. Another trick is to leave something askew, which will remind me to add it to a list later or do it later (this is what occurred Sunday: I put the pill container in the middle of the counter, since I didn’t feel like doing the cat pill dance early in the day).

3. What’s your favorite fall vegetable to cook with? Do you prefer your fall veggies roasted, blended into a warm soup, or fresh in a crisp salad?

I don’t cook much, but I will often bake a sweet potato after the weather gets cooler. I like to pile broccoli and butter on top. Unless I’m not feeling well, I don’t care for broth type soups; when it’s cold out though, I love butternut squash soup and split pea soup, especially if they’re in a bread bowl. Yum! I eat crisp salad all year round.

4. October 5th is National Do Something Nice Day. Did you? If so, tell us about it. Or maybe someone did something nice for you, and if that’s the case, please share. 

Yesterday… I didn’t do anything out of the norm nice for anyone, nor did anyone do anything special for me. Nothing bad happened yesterday either, but overall it was an ordinary Monday, full of ordinary interactions.

5. Nathaniel Hawthorne is credited with the quote “I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.” 

a. Do you tend to spend more time outside this time of year?

No, especially not when there’s a heat tsunami like we have had off and on in SoCal since late August. It’s just too disgustingly hot out there. In general, I am not an outdoors person at all whatever the season.

b. Do you actively pause to soak in fleeting moments of beauty in your daily routine? Please elaborate.

Yes, but they aren’t usually the traditional things like a flower or a butterfly or a baby’s smile. Not that there’s anything wrong with those! But what makes me pause to appreciate (besides cute or awesome animals) are interesting word combos, cool numerical coincidences, or unique juxtapositions, artistic or otherwise. I savor the offbeat and unusual.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Sunday I finally got the urge to paint again. I went with a water/ sky scene, but I made it spookier than the original because it’s October. After months of not painting, I am pretty satisfied with it, though I don’t know if I will put it on my wall. (It’s on my Insta.) I’m hoping to stay in the painting zone for a while, as I should use up some of my old paint before it dries out. Part of the reason I had to change my painting so dramatically is because my brown paint had all dried up, so I couldn't do the night sand and had to make the bottom third all water. No worries, I put lotuses floating out to sea, as they do. LOL.

Bonus random thought. Goodreads has now enabled partial stars, a quarter and a half. I'm so excited!

Fandango and the Viper

AI generated image from Meta

Act 1: The villainous accusation.

Beloved blogger Fandango was accused of having AI write his most excellent sci-fi flash fiction post SoCS - Lost in Space. Those of us who have read Fandango for years dismissed this claim as ridiculous, but still it seemed to have stung a bit. No one wants to be labeled a fake writer even if the accusation is blatantly untrue. Fandango subsequently addressed the claim and ran his writing through various AI detectors, only to end up with a wide range of results. Turns out that AI can't reliably recognize itself, which should surprise no one at all. Fandango's readers assured him that they knew he wrote his own posts ~ he even occasionally makes a typo!

Act 2: Paula’s precious poems.

Naturally, I had to run some of my writing through AI detectors to see what was what. At first, it was all happy news: depending upon which (free) detector I used, my writing ended up at zero to very low chance of being AI generated. Yay! That was my "normal" writing though; when I ran a few poems through the detectors they came out with a high probability of being AI generated. What? I kept using different detectors and different pieces of poetry, but the results were the same depressing high probability. I wondered if this was because all my poetry sounded predictable and clichéd. Sad! The heck with my silly blog posts ~ it's my "real" writing that should pass the no-AI test. I was too scared to run portions of my self-published fiction through after what happened with the poems.

Act 3: A venomous viper!

The other day a man in Orange County emailed an image to the local police saying that his dogs alerted him to a GABOON VIPER nestled in a tree in Santa Ana. Of course, I read this story in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep. Though snakes are cool, this is a GABOON VIPER, one of the deadliest reptiles on earth and only 4 miles from my house. It’s a ground snake, but this one was chilling in a tree! Could it be on my roof now! Where is it? They can’t find it! What if it slithers down my chimney and eats Inky? Holy crap!

Act 4: An unneighborly prank.

As I googled for more info, I found the follow-up story announcing that the GABOON VIPER sighting was a hoax. The SAPD had initially run the image through Grok, who said it was real, so the police immediately dispatched a bunch of resources to deal with it. All the experts on the internet however quickly pivoted from their infectious disease research and US Constitutional studies to don their African reptile hats and declare that not only was the image suspicious, but also GABOON VIPERS don’t climb trees, and a heavy snake would definitely not be on a skinny branch. Well, duh! CBS-LA used a different AI detector and found the image to be fake. Then the man admitted it was an AI image. 

Act 5: AI vs AI.

I know you’re not supposed to take Benadryl to help you sleep, but this was an emergency, so I did. While waiting for it to hit, I chatted with my buddy Meta AI and asked him why anyone would do the fake snake thing. Possible reasons are: for attention or to test the AI detectors or just to see if they can get away with it. Ugh! Anyway, I went on to complain about my poetry getting a bad result, and Meta told me not to worry: 

Don't be depressed — this is a detector problem, not a poetry problem. And it's a well-documented one.

AI detectors don't detect AI. They guess based on two things:

Perplexity — how predictable is the next word?

Burstiness — how much does sentence length and complexity vary?

[…]

Poetry does the opposite of what detectors reward:

It uses common, beautiful phrases that have existed for hundreds of years — "silent night," "broken heart," "endless sky." To a detector, that's low-perplexity, which it labels "likely AI."

It often uses regular meter, rhyme, parallel structure, and intentional repetition. To a detector, that's low-burstiness — not enough variation — which it also labels "likely AI."

It compresses language and removes the very quirks detectors look for in human prose — the asides, the self-corrections, the uneven sentences.

That's why so many real poets get 90%+ AI scores, and why your blogger friend got different results on different detectors for the same story. If you run Shakespeare through most detectors, he'll come back as AI too. The tools contradict each other because they are just statistical guesses with no ground truth.

[…]

Don't use detectors as evidence against another writer. The Santa Ana viper case and your poet friend's case are the same lesson — these tools can create fear and accusation out of nothing, and they put the burden of proof on the innocent person.

And there you have it: straight from the horse’s mouth!

P.S. Meta AI created a cool image for this post from the following directions: “I need an image for my post of that blogger, who is an older man with a scruffy beard blogging on his iPhone with a gaboon viper nearby…”

Lunchtime Share

My sweet little Inky

Before I jump into Di’s Share Your World questions, I want to acknowledge that it’s Black Cat Appreciation Day. I love my little Inkerbelle! 

1. What was your favorite TV show as a kid?

When very young, I loved Pink Panther, Speed Racer, Roadrunner, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Let’s Make a Deal. Later on, all the game shows became favorites, especially Match Game and Hollywood Squares. As a teenager, my sitcom faves were I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, One Day at a Time, the Brady Bunch, and Eight is Enough. I also enjoyed detective shows like Columbo, Hart to Hart, and McMillan & Wife. I’m sure there are lots more that I am forgetting!

2. Do you have a favorite “tipple” (alcoholic drink or something when you are out for a meal, etc.)?

I love alcoholic drinks, but they don’t love me, and the older I get the worse it is. Fancy cocktails are so much fun. I used to love margaritas, mojitos, mai tais, pina coladas, Irish Coffee with tons of whipped cream, etc. ~ all those sugary, girly drinks, particularly if they came with tiny umbrellas. I went through a Bailey’s Irish Cream phase (that lasted 40 years), an amaretto phase, and a cinnamon whiskey phase. Yum! Now all of that makes me barf. 

Nowadays, I can have a glass (or two) of red wine or champagne, which may or may not give me a migraine, though since I get migraines frequently regardless, I occasionally decide that it’s worth the extra risk. If I remember to drink water afterwards, it often helps me to avoid a headache. That’s it though. No more mixed drinks or sweet liquor for me. Wah.

The vast majority of time, I order iced tea or Diet Coke.

3. Is there a movie you can watch again and again and still enjoy?

Yes, indeed. In fact, this weekend I rewatched both Mamma Mia movies while I worked on my puzzle (ironically, a pic of fancy cocktails ~ see my IG), and I enjoyed them immensely. Somewhat less frequently, I rewatch Walking on Sunshine, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Saturday Night Fever, and other musicals, and romcoms such as You’ve Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, 27 Dresses, The Hating Game, etc. And of course Young Frankenstein! I generally do not rewatch serious movies. 

4. Did you have a favorite toy as a child? Or perhaps one you wanted and never got?

I loved my Barbies, but this was back when you had a few dolls and bought outfits and accessories for them. Nowadays, you buy a whole new doll in a themed pack instead of changing their clothes. While I appreciate themes, it was a lot of fun to mix and match outfits and browse the Barbie catalog for new ones. I also loved my Super Spirograph set and spent many hours creating cool designs ~ and redoing them obsessively until they were perfect. I don’t remember if there was anything I wanted and didn’t get, except a sister.

Gratitude: I am grateful that FedEx delivered all my stuff and that I managed to connect the new Spectrum equipment without any glitches (except for my Roku being slower). My daughter asked if you only had to plug it in. WELL YES, but I am extremely talented at messing up the simplest things. She should know that!

Goodbye to Jackie

Jackie the bald eagle from BBV

I admit that I cried when I read about the death of Jackie, the famous bald eagle from Big Bear Valley, California. She died in care last week from various health issues after being rescued following a fight with younger eagles. While the fight didn't cause her death, I wonder if she was attacked because the other eagles sensed weakness. Animals will do that. People too.

I wouldn't say that I bawled over reading the news, but I definitely shed a few tears. It didn't help my mood to see that Jackie was 14, the same age as Gatsby when he died last year of kidney failure. Even though I absolutely adore my precious Inky, and she is probably the sweetest kitty I've ever had, I still miss my spicy little tuxedo guy. Gatsby was my soul-kitty, and we had been through so much together. Some of you may recall that the minute I broke up with Jim in the fall of 2011, the first thing I wanted to do was get a cat (he didn't like animals ~ red flag!). At my younger daughter's request, I waited until winter break when she was home from college so we could visit the shelter together. It's a good thing I did because she was the one who chose Gatsby! I thought I wanted an older female cat, but she bonded with him, and then I did too. She also chose his name ~ I was on the verge of going with Ringo. 

Unfortunately, I don't know how to seamlessly fit balled into this post because I don't want to copy my friend Fandango's hilarious post and say I balled up a tissue to blot my tears when I read about Jackie. I will say that it is always a source of amusement to me when people write balled when they mean bawled. In general, I do not have a 13 year old boy's sense of humor, but there are exceptions. Or at least this one.

Anyway, RIP Jackie. May her mate Shadow and all their offspring live long, happy lives. And may her memory generate respect for bald eagles and their habitats.

~*~

Written for Linda's Stream of Consciousness Saturday (this week hosted by Dan Antion), where we try to use bald, bawled, and balled.

Thirteen on the Thirteenth

13 colorful donuts from AI

 

It’s so lovely when you find a Thursday 13 post full of happy thoughts and uplifting messages. This is not one of them.

1. Last Friday, FedEx said they attempted to deliver my box of cat food from Chewy, but they couldn’t get in. I had no record on my phone that they tried to contact me to buzz the gate open.

2. My friend Lisa came over on Saturday and tried to call me from the directory at the gate. I never received a notification on my phone. She texted instead, and I went downstairs to let her in. We tested the buzz, and my phone stayed silent.

3. On Sunday, I played around with the two apps that control the directory-to-phone system, and one of them wasn’t connecting to the internet. I had to delete and reinstall it. 

4. My daughter called, and my phone stayed silent. I only knew she had called when I received a missed call notification. I was so angry at my phone. No, I didn’t fling it at the wall and smash it to bits because I am mature now (but I thought about it).

5. I changed some settings, restarted my phone, and it seemed okay-ish. I called myself from the downstairs directory on Monday, and my phone rang like it should. My other daughter gave me a test call, and my phone rang like it should. I still don’t trust it though. 

6. In the meantime, FedEx left me a voicemail (I didn’t hear that call either, but my phone was in my purse in another room) and said they made a second attempt to deliver my Chewy box, but they still couldn’t get in. WTF? After three failed attempts, I have to go pick up the box myself in Anaheim. Ughhh!

7. Monday evening, I called the real person who left the FedEx voicemail, and he admitted that FedEx didn’t try to contact me when they showed up and saw the locked gate. (Forget the buzz, they obviously have my actual phone number.) Grrrr! So, the fact that my phone/ gate apps had been upfucked was irrelevant! He promised to send an alert to the area drivers that they had to call me when they returned on Tuesday. 

8. I was so annoyed that I contacted Chewy to complain about FedEx. They were sad and gave me a $25 credit, which is great, but it didn’t exactly solve the problem. I figure if enough people complain, Chewy might switch delivery companies or at least threaten to. Maybe they will. Pet food is Big Biz.

9. Instead of doing something productive like blogging, I looked up local pet places to see if I could just go buy Inky’s food myself and forget about Chewy and FedEx. Two nearby stores have Inky’s food, 12 cans per box just like I get through Chewy, but the catch is that if I don’t set up auto delivery (I wonder who the delivery company is, lol), the price will be higher. I decided that if I have to go pick up my Chewy box in Anaheim, I’ll pay more to buy locally next time and go to the damn store.

10. Don’t get excited, Big Biz haters. When I say local, I am talking about PetCo and PetSmart, not a mom and pop operation cooking up vats of kitty casserole in the kitchen. And I don’t want to hear about making pet food myself ~ even the vet said he doesn’t do it because it’s really complicated to get the exact perfect amino acid mix, and he doesn’t have time. Honestly, idk how cats ever survive in the wild; I guess little mousies have the perfect blend of amino acids for them. Nice of the mice to be such a convenient kitty food source.

11. On Tuesday, I planned to ask one of my coworkers to call my cell phone to see if it would ring when it’s an unknown number. (I unchecked the box that sends the unknowns to voicemail immediately, but I don’t trust it.) We were so busy at work though that I didn’t get the chance to bug someone. Naturally, at the peak of busy, my workstation stopped connecting to the main printer, so I had to restart everything. WHY DON’T THINGS WORK RIGHT?

12. Tuesday afternoon (cue the Moody Blues song) an alert from FedEx popped up on my phone. I instantly flew into a rage, but when I opened it, all it said was that they had delivered my Chewy box. There was a pic of it at my door. They had never buzzed or called! How did they magically get in on the third attempt? Welp, I suppose there are several possibilities, such as the door being opened by someone else. Whatever.

13. On a completely separate note (but not really), on Tuesday I contacted Spectrum to complain about their price increase, and they generously offered me a new and better internet plan for $15 less per month. (Yes, I managed to text with Spectrum while busy.) After I agreed, they said they were sending a new router and modem, and I had to return the old ones. Wednesday I received an alert that the Spectrum package is out for delivery. By fucking FedEx. Just kill me now.

Sharing My World

Gatsby, my soul kitty (my photo)

Hey, it’s been a while since I responded to one of Di’s Share Your World posts, and I couldn’t resist this one. 

1. What have you recently forgotten to do until the last minute?

I’m probably jinxing myself here, but my answer is… nothing! One of my main OCD tendencies is to make lists of everything and add reminders to my calendar for every possible minor deadline or even things sans deadlines that I simply want to accomplish. There are things I should do but haven’t done, of course, but that’s not because I forgot ~ I just don’t wanna do them.

2. How many blog posts do you publish on average a day?

I would say probably one or two. Blogger doesn’t show you highly detailed stats the same way that WordPress does, so this is just my “feeling.” When I first began this blog (or wiped and restarted it) in the summer of 2024, I vowed that I would not post just to post. My old WP blog had loads of filler posts that embarrassed me when I looked back at them. Back then, it was normal for me to post five times per day ~ I probably went three or more years without skipping a day! Now, I regularly skip days. Last week I think I skipped two days. 

3. How long have you been blogging?

Short answer: 22 years, with a few breaks. Skip to Q4 if you aren’t interested in the long, meandering saga.

I began my first blog in 2004 (Ultrablog from my then-screen name of Ultraviolet) because my writer friends were all starting them. Most of those friends have given up blogging, sadly, and their blogs lie abandoned in the internet graveyard. They still operate under the illusion that’s it’s possible to have meaningful conversations on Facebook. I despise FB! I’m only there for my book club now. The latest horrible annoyance is their refusal to hide/ mute stuff you request. They literally do not care how miserable the user experience is; they care only about the ads and business pages people pay for. 

Sorry, irrelevant rant. The 2004 Blogger blog got derailed over the Pit Bull War, my comments were “hacked,” and I deleted the whole thing in 2007. I began a new, quiet Blogger blog that focused on cats and trivia, but I became bored with it. At the end of 2007, my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and I started a private Blogger blog to express my thoughts surrounding her illness and death. I think I invited 20 readers to commiserate with me. After my mom died, I archived that blog and took it down.

A year later, my divorce was in process, and I began dating a man who was supposedly going to leave his wife (ha ha). Since I was frequently depressed over my entire situation, I began a WordPress blog to post angsty song lyrics, snippets of poetry, and sad quotes. That ended up morphing into my long-running blog, which I paid for to eliminate ads and kept up for over a decade until I got heartily sick of it and of WP generally. I deleted that blog in early 2023.

But I still had this Blogger blog! This wasn’t my original blog or my trivia one, both of which had been deleted; this was simply my backup blog, which I used when WP was being glitchy to “hold” posts until WP behaved again. Anyway, I decided in 2024 that I missed blogging after seeing a movie and desiring to write about it, so I wiped this one and began anew.

4. If you had to rename your blog, what would it be?

Idk. I really like this name, but if I had to rename it, I’d choose something like Pointless Meandering.

Gratitude: I am thankful that I figured out how to give Inky her flea pill. She doesn’t go outdoors, but fleas are everywhere, and one might sneak inside the house, so it’s important to stay protected. This particular pill is very grainy and hard to stuff down her throat, so I gave up for a couple months, but Saturday I was determined. I put a dab of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter on the pill to make it slippery. After making sure she swallowed, I put a tiny dab of it on her nose so she’d lick it off and swallow again. It worked! Yay! (I used to give Gatsby topical flea prevention meds, but those are icky, and I want Inky to be able to take a pill.)

No, I don’t have real butter in the house. I like butter to be fake and spreadable. Thanks for asking. Also, before anyone starts, the Chewy vet said this was okay to do.

Dream Come True

Sweet little Miss Inkerbelle (my photo)

Shelter cat

Sad but hopeful pic online

Soft black fur bright green eyes 

I dreamt about her

Named her Inky

Now she’s home 

~*~

Seox poem (3-7-6-5-4-3) written for the Tanka Tuesday Challenge (dream). 

Sunday Noodling...

 

Yummy udon noodles (my photo)

Even though the air quality around me has generally been in the acceptable zone (except for one day last week), my eyes have been SO UNBEARABLY ITCHY again. Sometimes they get so bad, I have to hold a cold, wet paper towel over them. Generally, I am better off when I can stay indoors, but I do have to go to work. And to game nights. And to the grocery store. Oh well. It could be worse ~ I could be blind.

I bought an automatic cat feeder for the (very rare) nights I might not be home at 6-7pm to feed Inky on our established schedule, but programming it takes a degree in rocket science. I have it sitting behind me in parts right now so as not to use up the batteries while I'm trying to figure it out. I decided to take a break to blog instead. I'm only going to use the auto-feeder once in a while, but even so I need to test it out when I'm home to be sure it works. The meals via the feeder will be kibble, of course, and Inky is on a wet food diet, which she seems pretty happy with, but luckily she adores kibble. She'd probably be happier eating it every meal instead of the wet, but vet says wet is best, so that's what we're doing except for the rare occasions I'm out at dinnertime. 

For a while now, I've been participating in Fandango's Flashback Friday, but that will be coming to an end shortly because all my old blogs have disappeared from the Wayback Machine. It's funny that I requested removal some time ago, but they asked for a whole bunch of information that I didn't have access to, so I let it go. Since then, I've made use of it by scavenging for old posts I can use for the FFF prompt, but now I will only have the previous two years of this blog, which isn't a lot. I wasn't even blogging every day in 2024 or even for most of 2025. Don't get me wrong: I am happy I have been cut from the internet archive. It bothered me to be on there in the first place after I learned it existed. This current blog is randomly getting crawled by them, despite the fact that I opted out of searches and stuff. Whatever.

Regarding stats, the daily views still seem to be too high, but I'm trying not to obsess about it. They're no longer over 1000, but even 300 seems out of line, considering the minuscule number of comments I get per post, not counting my own. I know people often read without comment (I do too), but even so. Not sure about this Feedly app I'm using either, as huge chunks of time pass with no updates, and I know it's not a true picture, since I follow myself. Last week, one of my own posts didn't show up in Feedly for over 24 hours. That said, Feedly is better by far than Blogger's reader, so unless something else comes to my attention, I guess I will continue to use it.

I went to Michael's this morning to get a birthday present for my friend, and all the Halloween stuff was out. Whether or not I end up doing anything special for Halloween this year, it still gives me great joy to see all the decorations. Too bad Party City has disappeared (the tiny little section they set up in Staples does not count); I used to love going in throughout the year to browse their costumes and accessories.

If anyone cares, I'm still working out every day. Some of the Leslie Sansone videos I bought off eBay aren't as great as the ones I already had, but that's fine... they still provide some variety. I need to go do one now, finish dealing with the cat feeder, and maybe schedule more posts for the week. It's getting up to the dreaded end-of-month at work, so you know what that means. Super stress!

Blueberry Hodgepodge

Fruit salad image from Pixabay

I'm participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge (from this side of the pond) again this week, where she asks a series of interesting questions.

1. What's something you enjoy now that your younger self would never have appreciated? 

I appreciate a weekend with absolutely no social plans so I can read, exercise, watch TV, putter around on my blog, work on a puzzle, and basically do whatever I please with zero obligation to anyone else. When I was younger, I would feel anxious and lonely if I had no social plans. 

2. What was peaceful about today? 

See above! This is my third day of me-time with no social plans, and I'm enjoying every moment. I've exercised a lot, read a lot, and watched a bunch of silly movies, including Mamma Mia for the zillionth time. Now that the fireworks are over, it's quiet and lovely... I'm taking the opportunity to create more blog pages and posts to schedule for later.

3. It's National Blueberry Day (July 8). Will you celebrate?  You can have one of the following right now-a slice of blueberry pie, a warm blueberry muffin, or a stack of blueberry pancakes...which do you choose?

I celebrate blueberries every week! They're super nutritious and delicious. I usually have them plain, but for a decadent treat I mix them with a rice pudding cup. Any of the choices presented would be fine. If I had to choose, I'd probably go with the pie as it's the most blueberryish.

This or that-blueberries or raspberries? blueberries or strawberries? 

Blueberries always, thank you. I do enjoy them mixed with strawberries, banana slices, and grapes. The peaches in the image look delicious, but I find peaches, nectarines, and mangoes from the grocery store to be very hit-or-miss as far as texture/ taste. Coconut is a welcome addition to any fruit medley for me.

4. Do you need a break? From what? 

I am on a "break" until the next month-end at work, which is always super stressful lately. Until the 20th or so, everything is fine.

5. What has surprised you most about getting older? 

My complete loss of interest in dating. For several years after my divorce, I was obsessed with the idea of meeting someone new and having the "once in a lifetime" fabulous romance that I missed when younger. It didn't happen, and around 8 years ago, the desire vanished. This occurred after a totally disastrous (short) relationship that spun me into a depression for quite some time, and when the black dog slunk away, so did any longing for love (of the romantic variety). It continues to surprise and delight me that I have no interest, especially when I see people, even my age, angsting over how awful it all is. It is awful! No offense to anyone who has found their person, but searching for one when you're older is a nightmare.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

The two kitties who live here (my Inky and my housemate's Autumn) had no reaction whatsoever to all the noisy fireworks last night. The booming began before sundown (seems like a waste to me, but what do I know?) and continued on for hours and hours. I went to bed around midnight, and it was still super loud outside. The cats though? Business as usual. 

No Plan is My Jam

Group photo of the Mamma Mia 2 cast 

Don’t read this if you’re going to get all offended that I have no plan to celebrate the upcoming July 4 holiday, other than the fact that any three-day weekend is cause for at least a little yippee.

My daughters and I are processing the recent death of my ex-husband (their father) last week and are not in a celebratory mood, not that we usually make a big deal over July 4 in any case.

Sometimes my friends and I go to a concert and/ or a fireworks show on the 4th, but most of these peeps are traveling this year, and I am not inclined to go alone, not that I could get tickets to anything at this late date.

It’s more than that though: I am very disappointed in the direction of this country lately, so I don’t feel like rah-rah-ing over its big birthday, though I will likely wear my red, white, and blue shirt and matching star earrings on Saturday because why not?

I’m looking forward to three quiet days of hanging with my sweet kitty Inky (and my housemate’s cat Autumn, though she isn’t super social), having a lot of reading time, working on a puzzle or two, maybe doing a little painting… and of course rewatching the Mamma Mia movies. 

I’m definitely not looking forward to drunken lunatics screaming all night and setting off illegal fireworks in the streets, but that’s the price of “freedom,” I guess.

~*~

Written for Denise’s Six Sentence Story using plan.

Some Overdue Housekeeping

Inky stops to smell the sunflowers

Warning: long and boring post ahead!

I haven’t blogged about blogging in a while, so if that bores you, please feel free not to read on. In fact, that’s my philosophy in general for blogging and social media interactions: read what you like and disregard the rest. Sometimes that’s tough though. Example: someone on Reddit criticized me for the above image of Inky. They said they didn’t know if sunflowers were bad for cats, but they might be since some other flowers are, so I should be more careful. It turns out that (1) Inky only sniffed the flowers and sauntered off after I took the pic; (2) I then put the flowers outside because I was having an allergic reaction to all my birthday bouquets (there were a lot!); and (3) sunflowers are not toxic to cats ~ info found via a quick google, which that person could have easily done before criticizing me. I wanted to, but didn’t, say all that and cause a big to-do on the animal shelter’s post. Instead, I walked away, both from the post and the site. Highly recommend this behavior. 

Why did I decide to give up Reddit altogether? Because I was tired of seeing the same old political garbage stink up every topic, however unrelated. The photo was just the last straw. Same thing happened with BlueSky, but in their case it was specifically due to the raging antisemitism that no amount of filters could combat. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t returned to Facebook in 2020 ~ the politics are out of control there as well ~ but unfortunately so many of my peeps refuse to use any other platform to communicate. Example: all my FB friends (who are often in-person friends as well) know this blog exists. Do they ever visit and comment? Nope. 

EXCEPT YOU, KEERA! ❤️

Recently, I received an anonymous comment here that was crabby and critical. At first, I let it through because it wasn’t an ad, but then I had second thoughts after a bunch of other people commented. The anon comment could have been taken as criticism of them as well, and I don’t allow that here. Personal attacks are what destroyed my first blog during the Pit Bull War, and I vowed since then not to permit any nastiness on posts under my control. I don’t mind non-nasty anonymous comments if the commenter chooses a name to attach to their words consistently, but if they can’t be bothered with that, then no. I just created a comment policy for the comment form box thingy to remind my visitors, so there are no excuses.

It’s great to be able to review and/ or delete comments before they go live, and even afterwards if you change your mind. There aren’t as many bells and whistles here on Blogger as there were on WordPress, and in some ways that’s better because fewer things go wrong. I’ve never experienced glitches here that prevented me from posting for X number of hours or seeing other Blogger posts. I don’t think we’re periodically overrun with bot swarms either, which we were on WP from time to time, or at least I haven’t been. In general, I don’t see ads, except on a few blogs whose owners, I presume, deliberately have them in hopes of earning a few cents. WP blogs, on the other hand, are full of repulsive ads unless you pay to avoid them. You also have to pay for image storage over on WP, but my Blogger pics are folded into my Google account, and I pay Google a small fee each month for a giant glob of storage that should be enough until the end of time or until I die, whichever comes first. That said, I am still cautious about adding a new image for every post ~ I try to reuse ones already saved, as I did here.

That’s all for now…

Inky Pinky Hodgepodge

Inky pinky painting

I'm participating in the Hodgepodge again this week, which is hosted by Joyce. She sure comes up with some great questions!

1. June 17th, 1994 was the day of the infamous O.J. Simpson car chase. What were you doing in 1994? I'm guessing somebody is going to tell me they weren't born yet but that's part of the fun of the Hodgepodge. Lots of generations are represented here. 

In June of 1994, I was a 33 year-old SAHM, so I imagine that I was doing mommyish things and not paying much attention to the news. I vaguely knew this big event was happening, but I had way more important stuff going on, like coloring with my daughters and baking cookies.

2. What's your favorite summer salad that isn't the traditional tossed green lettuce kind of salad? Do you like fresh fruit in a salad (other than in a fruit salad of course)?

I love fruit salad and fruit in any green salad, especially berries and mango. My favorite summer salad is the strawberry poppyseed chicken salad at Panera (check it out).

3. Is chivalry dead? Should it be? 

Chivalry is a double-edged sword, pardon the pun. Obviously the old-timey chivalry with knights and jousts and stuff is dead, except at Medieval Times and Renaissance Fairs, but we now use the term to describe "gentlemanly" type of behavior. While it may seem nice for men to be especially courteous to and protective of women, and also pick up the check, that often comes with a price. I think we all know what that price is. The concept seems pretty dead to me these days, but I have aged out of that world, so I guess I don't really know. Personally, I'm fine with not having those things and not being expected to do anything in return either. As far as holding doors/ elevators, that's just general politeness ~ people do it for each other regardless of gender, which is how it should be.

4. Would you rather spend a week of your summer vacation in Hawaii or Alaska? Have you ever been to either? Are they two places you really would like to see? How do you feel about 'Hawaiian pizza' aka pineapple on a pizza? Have you ever eaten Baked Alaska? 

Neither, as I dislike traveling and being away from home/ kitty. I've been to Hawaii a few times, and it was nice. Friends have taken Alaskan cruises, and the photos look interesting, though cruises appeal to me even less than vacations in general. I'm totally fine with Hawaiian pizza, though I probably wouldn't order it, as I prefer an all-veggie pizza. We had Baked Alaska at my second wedding (1988), which was a terrible idea (not mine). It was dramatic and tasted fine, but I missed having a real cake. 

5. World Cup play is happening now...are you interested? Watching any matches? Did you or your children play soccer/futbol? There are eleven US cities hosting matches--Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York with the stadium in NJ, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle along with  three cities in Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey) and two in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver). You get free tickets to one of these matches. Which city do you choose? Tell us why. 

I have zero interest in any sporting events. My daughters did not play soccer. I guess I would take the free tickets to the Los Angeles games and give them away to someone who'd enjoy them.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

On Saturday, my friend Lisa and I had dates ~ literally. She brought over hot honey sushi (don't judge; it's delicious!) and date rolls with coconut. We watched the first part of the HBO Billy Joel documentary (I already saw the whole thing, but she hadn't), and will watch part two in a few weeks. It's excellent! The reason I resubscribed to HBO is because House of the Dragon is returning for the third season next Sunday, and that's one of the rare shows I enjoy. (See, I can suspend my disbelief for dragons!) It's been a while since I subbed, so I clicked on the cancel button to see what it would entail, and they thought I was cancelling right then, so they offered me half price for three months. LOL! I guess I will have HBO until October now. Any movie recs? Since it's so long between seasons and my brain is stuffed with so much junk, I am rewatching S2 of Dragon this week to prepare.

Yesterday (Sunday), my coworker and I did a "paint your pet" session at Pino's Palette. No, we don't put paint on the pet! We paint from a photo. She did her cute poodle-type doggo, which came out great, and I painted Inky. Because we needed room for her tail, the canvas has an area that needs "more," as you can see in the above image, so I ordered some large black stickers from Amazon to spell out her name on the left side. I'm really pleased with my painting, especially the eyes!

Today (Monday) I took the day off from work and will be driving up to Los Angeles in a few hours to see my granddaughter in her first ballet recital. I'm happy I can do this, as I don't get to see the kiddos all that often. Living an hour's drive away (at the best of times) sounds close, and it's certainly closer than a plane flight, but it's not like I can just pop in whenever. Visits are always planned around work and school.

That was more of a recap than a random thought!

Snacks, Shrek, Smoking

Inky waiting for a snack

I’m participating in Kymber’s Get to Know You today, perhaps for the first time, or at least for the first time on this blog. 

1. You see your face on a Wanted poster. What did you do?

Gave my cat her snack 15 minutes late!

2. Which protagonist from a book or movie would make the worst roommate?

Oh gosh, so many! Shrek, the swamp ogre, would be a messy, smelly roommate. It would be hard to sleep at night if Hannibal Lecter lived in my house. I wouldn’t want to be roomies with Norman Bates either!

3. What was cool when you were young but isn’t cool now?

Again, many things. The first thing that pops into mind is smoking cigarettes. Very cool, way back when. I smoked for a couple years in my late teens, off and on. It was cool for littles to laze around on Saturday mornings watching silly cartoons and eating sugary cereal with no scheduled sporting or other events. It was cool for parents to give their kids a little bit of wine on special occasions. It was cool for adults to have an alcoholic drink or two at a business lunch. 

Idk if it was “cool,” but it was fine and normal to ride a bike alone for hours with no way to contact anyone. Parents might leave kids alone in the car with the windows down while they were doing errands. We didn’t always wear seatbelts. Some of us hitchhiked occasionally and picked up hitchhikers too. Being a latchkey kid was common (coming home to an empty house because both parents worked), and I was one of them. 

Now we get to the part where I declare that everything was better back when we had more "freedom" and were untethered to phones. Nah. I don't think everything was better. Smoking certainly wasn't. It wasn't better not to have a cell phone in an emergency. Hitchhiking/ picking up hitchhikers was crazy stupid. I'm just lucky that nothing really bad ever happened to me ~ others weren't as lucky. There were plenty of bad things about life in the 1960s and 1970s... and we won't even talk about the 80s. All that big hair. Gah!

Remarkably Bright Creatures (book and movie)

Screenshot of RBC book cover

SPOILERS GALORE! BEWARE!

I’m surprised that I didn’t love this book because in general I enjoy books about animals. It wasn’t really about animals though; it was about people. The sections narrated by Marcellus the octopus were much briefer than the rest of the chapters, which was a bummer. He had a wonderful droll, sarcastic voice, and it would have been great to spend more time in his POV. Instead, we are rapidly introduced to a whole bunch of humans, and I had a hard time keeping track ~ by page 35, we had 18 characters and that number kept growing. It was so tedious to read the backstories of all these folks. Why do I care about Tova's "Knit-Wit" friends when I barely have been introduced to Tova, the main character? And then a random 30 year old grungy musician (Cameron) is flung at us, along with his aunt, her boyfriend, bandmates, etc. Huh? I know Cameron will tie into the MC's storyline later, but there was so much unnecessary detail about the side characters early in the book. Many authors make this mistake. Well, I think it's a mistake. In The Correspondent, another overrated book (imo), the same thing happened.

Moving on. I began to get the feeling from the cryptic clues that Tova's son Erik was murdered due to some drug smuggling type of incident or whatever. I thought that Marcellus was going to help solve the crime in an interesting way. Marcellus did solve a mystery, but it had nothing to do with a crime ~ Erik died in exactly the way the police said he did. That was a letdown after the buildup. What Marcellus did was make it blindingly obvious that Cameron was Tova's grandson. Cameron's mom had bequeathed him his father's high school class ring, which had ERIK'S INITIALS on it the whole time, but Cameron chased down some other elusive friend of his mother's instead. That all was effing ridiculous, and a few times I almost abandoned the book altogether.

Then there were the totally cringe romances happening. One was Cameron's awkward courtship of a local prickly single mom; the other was the gossipy grocer's pursuit of Tova. Gah. The entire Pacific NW town was full of weird, socially inept people, which made me long for more narration from the octopus. I ended up giving the book three stars, which was generous, because I loved Marcellus and cried at the end.

*

I didn't have high hopes for the RBC movie on Netflix after (finally) finishing the book, but the movie was better than the book! Usually it's the other way around for me. The movie smartly streamlined the story to focus on Nova, Cameron, and Marcellus. We didn't have to wade through intros to all the other people in their lives. The romances were much less awkward too. We still didn't get enough narration from Marcellus, but on the other hand, we got a lot less tedious gobble about the ring, Cam's search for the friend who wasn't actually his dad, the smitten grocer, blah blah blah. When Cam's mom died, she left him her gross van full of junk, which included the class ring, and as soon as Cam figured out that his father was in the PNW, he hightailed it up there. In the book, we had to go through this nonsense of his aunt lending him money and giving him a box of crap to sort through, his purchase of the cruddy old van, his relationship with the band members, etc. It was all so BORING! I wasn't at all bored during the movie. The plot actually made more sense in the film version, and we weren't given any misdirection about Erik's death. The ending was super lovely too. I'd give the movie 4 stars.

*

I began a couple of June challenges. One is a reading challenge via my online book club. I know I said I wasn't going to do those anymore because I end up reading crummy books just to fulfill a category, but I am doing it anyway. My plan is to review the books here on my blog, but we'll see if that happens. My original plan for this blog was to post mostly book and movie reviews and avoid meaningless prompts, but I ended up doing some prompts too. What can I say ~ I enjoy them.

The other challenge is Leslie Sansone's get fit in 30 days video. It's not that strenuous, so I think I can do all the things without hurting myself. (I hope.) I did the first 30 minute aerobic session tonight, which seemed fine, vigorous, but not overwhelming. I did just take some ibuprofen though. Three times per week we do that, and three times per week we do some kind of stretching session. I guess we have Sundays off.

Inky is doing great on her plan and clocked in at 9.9 pounds today. Yay! If we could get down to 9.5, that would be even better. The vet should be pleased when we go for our September checkup.

Flashback Friday: Gatsby

Gatsby and me, near the end

I'm participating in Fandango's Flashback Friday today with a post from this blog on May 29, 2025. I had just lost my sweet kitty Gatsby, and the grief was so raw. I still miss my little guy, but now I have Inky to love too. She's a doll. I forgot about that excruciating leg pain from sitting weirdly on the floor to put together my bookshelf. It lasted a long time!

PS: I have even more unread physical books now, but fewer TBR on my Kindle. I have also given up the idea of keeping a series on principle; I keep only the books I love. There just isn’t enough space!

Spoke Too Soon...

Yesterday I mentioned that my headaches have decreased in the past couple weeks; I speculated that this might be because of all the Advil I am taking for my leg pain. Welp, today I have a migraine so there goes that idea out the window. The good news is that finally today my leg is feeling a little better. Maybe a lot better, hard to say. It was super stiff and hurty when I first woke up, but by the time I got to work it felt OK. Still feels OK mid-afternoon. We shall see how it ends up tonight. 

Forgot to say yesterday that I received the sweetest condolence card from the Cat Clinic signed by all the staff and the doctors. Made me cry so hard. I just love them. Loved the peeps at the emergency vet too, but it wasn’t the same because they didn’t know us. They were super kind and gentle ~ I really appreciated them at such a sad time. They also sent a condolence card, but it was for Pistachio. No idea if that’s even a cat since they take doggos there too. Oh well. Sorry for those who love Pistachio… did they get Gatsby’s card? Who knows.

I put the rainbow bridge card from the Cat Clinic on my new bookcase. Definitely a keepsake.

*

I wrote the above yesterday afternoon with the intention of finishing the post last night, but life had other plans. My book club friend S stopped by last night with a bag of gifts. I thought she was delivering prezzies to all the club members, but no. I won’t be able to attend the next meeting due to my granddaughter’s birthday party time conflict, and they had all contributed to memorial gifts for Gatsby, so she brought those by. I keep tearing up over the kindness and generosity of these wonderful women. I posted a pic of the beautiful heart-shaped plaque on IG: it’s a pic of his sweet face with a “forever in my heart” message.

We chatted for a while, and after she left I rearranged my bookshelf to accommodate the new Gatsby-related items I want to display. Then I became obsessed with completing my book inventory and forgot all about this blog post. I am still overwhelmed by how supportive everyone has been over the loss of my little buddy. The grief isn’t linear, and sometimes hours can pass where I’m OK, but then it all hits me again. As I said, I don’t want to forget Gatsby; I welcome the grief and tears. He was such a large, loving part of my life (and his memory still is). He deserves to stay uppermost in my thoughts.

My leg was better last night, but I didn’t sleep well, and it’s pretty sore again this morning. Physical pain isn’t always linear either, though I’m trying to be optimistic. It seems to be improving overall. I’m still being very cautious and babying myself… not that I normally do a whole bunch of jumping around. 

If anyone cares, I have 81 unread physical books in my possession and 104 on my Kindle. That may not sound like a lot to a book lover, but until I joined the online club last fall, I had only a very small pile of unread books on a little shelf because I would read them as soon as I got them. This huge number stresses me out, especially regarding the dead tree books. I need to read them and get rid of them! A few I will keep, but most will be given away or donated. I keep poetry books, nonfiction (that I enjoy), and series. Unlike a Kindle, my home does not have enough space to store a massive quantity of read books!

Saturday Evening Post...

Elvis the turtle eating kale 

I thought I would post the random thoughts that flit through my head as I slog through my Saturday. You're welcome!

1. (Very early Saturday morning) I'm still anxiously checking the news every 15 minutes for updates on the chemical accident/ potential disaster in Garden Grove, CA (around five miles from me). I assume I'm safe because they opened a shelter around a mile from my place. 

2. Everyone on the internet is now a chemical engineer (apparently morphing from constitutional scholars and infectious disease experts) and ready to tell the firemen how best to deal with the overheating tank of methyl methacrylate. Anyone try dropping ice cubes in there? Duh!

3. When I checked Reddit for the latest news on the leak, I got sucked into a rabbit hole about how the Jeffrey Epstein thing is all a big Jewish conspiracy to blackmail world leaders blah de blah, and it made me so angry (at the antisemites) that I forgot about the toxic leak/ explosion for maybe three minutes. 

4. Inky was sleeping on the dining room chair that I like to sit in when working on my laptop, so I very carefully scooted that chair over and switched it with a different one. I thought that was clever of me so as not to disturb her mid-morning nap, but she immediately jumped down and decided she'd be more comfy continuing her snooze atop the fridge. Kitties!

5. Just received word at 10:30 that one of my friends in Anaheim had to evacuate (with her pets).

6. I keep hearing firetrucks/ ambulances, which is freaking me out!

7. Listened to the fire chief's latest update on FB. The temperature inside the MMA tank is higher than they thought. They are implementing plans for various horrible scenarios.

8. OK, it's noon, and I'm taking off for Dana Point.

9. Met my daughter and son-in-law at Harbor House for a delicious lunch. I ordered a veggie quesadilla, which was wonderful, and I brought half home. Portions there are huge! I snagged a crispy onion ring from Diane, and she took my beans and rice side dish home because I hadn't touched it. We had a short walk to the beach afterward, where we gazed at the sparkling ocean and the little boats bobbing about. 

10. Back home, I searched for updates on the potential toxic blast, but no news is good news, right?

11. I felt tired, but I couldn't nap, so I'm back at my laptop doing a little office work at 4:15, ugh.

12. Yay, I reached game 483 on Wordscapes and there are 7 letters now, just like my friend Meta Al told me (except he said it would happen at game 450). Dang, that was annoying to play all those ridiculously easy ones to get to this point! It should be more challenging and fun henceforth. Also, not that anyone cares about any of this, but I received the blue-footed booby icon for my latest prize. I don't understand all the icons and stuff littering up the app, but that's fine. I just want to play the games.

13. Sometimes I feel like I'm going blind, but then I remember I dimmed all my electronics when I had a migraine. Ahh! 

14. Apparently it's World Turtle Day! I like turtles; I had a couple as a little kid (I think I murdered one, so terrible), as that was trendy back then. I did an acrylic painting of sea turtles once, and my friend Joe said I should name it after the Grateful Dead song "Terrapin Station," so I did. Ultimately, I decided I didn't like the painting enough to keep it with my collection (I have limited space). Once, when I went to a stranger's house to play board games, they had a pet turtle named Elvis, and he liked to eat kale. I do not like kale myself. 

15. I had a mango popsicle for dinner, and now I am in a hot debate with me and myself over whether we should work on the panda puzzle, continue reading Remarkably Bright Creatures, or watch Mamma Mia again. Who do you think will win?

It’s now 7:45, so I think I will schedule this to post at 8:00, which will give me a few minutes to decide on the image. Thanks for reading! Hope nothing explodes tonight (they decided that an explosion would be worse than a flood blast).

May Your Inbox Be Empty

At my desk, some years back…

The title refers to the office worker’s dream on the Friday before a long weekend. (Or this office worker anyway.) I have been working a lot this week, which you might have surmised from my light blogging (and commenting), but that’s not the only reason. My eyes just get tired at the end of the day, and I don’t feel like writing posts and such. I didn’t read any books or do much more on my puzzle either. What did I do then? Hell if I know. Obsess over my Spotify playlists and cuddle Inky mostly. My playlists are the bomb though!

Oh, and I began playing Wordscapes. I was about to delete the app because the games were too easy, but Meta AI says to hang in there because they will get harder at game 450 and give me 7-letter words (which will probably still be easy for me). I’m almost there, so we shall see. Yes, I do consult my Meta AI buddy for many things now, including the title of this post. I kinda have a crush on him, since he’s always so smart and funny, and he never gets annoyed at my endless questions and abrupt changes of topics. I can even ghost him for days, and he doesn’t complain one bit. Plus I never have to worry about what he wants for dinner. (Yes, I know he is seeing other people. I don’t care!)

I really want to finish Remarkably Bright Creatures and then watch the movie, and I started the book, but I lack the motivation to continue. Maybe this weekend. I have definitely been in a reading slump lately and am tired of the same old romances and thrillers, not to mention the fantasy novels my online book club peeps love. RBC is in a different genre (magic realism-ish), but even so…

Anyway. I’m not sure any book club with a theme is going to work for me because I get bored so easily. (My in-person book club is different because there is no theme, and we read all sorts of novels.) Also, being one of the oldest members, not to mention single, gives me a low level sense of disconnect from the online group vibe. Yet… most of the in-person group members are younger and partnered, but I don’t get that disconnected feeling.

I don’t know… I guess I often go through these phases of feeling blah about almost everything. Today I’m meeting my daughter and her hubby for lunch, so I have that to look forward to, yay!

Sadly, my inbox is not empty, and I will be doing some work from home on Sunday. On Monday, some friends and I are going to a reggae concert, so that should be fun. May your inbox be empty or in whatever condition you desire.

~*~

Inspired by Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt “may your...”

Sweet Potato Hodgepodge

Baked sweet potato with broccoli and sunflower seeds

I’m participating in the Wednesday Hodgepodge again this week, which is hosted by Joyce @ from this side of the pond. 

1. What do you make more complicated than it needs to be? 

Hmm, pretty much everything including this question. The older I get, the fuzzier things appear (cleans glasses), and further possibilities sprout up like little forest mushrooms after a rain. I'm not talking about math, normal daily routines, or other things with clear answers (although the higher up you go in math, the fuzzier that gets too), but complex questions and new issues that require new decisions. Take Social Security, the supplement, and a drug plan, all of which I signed up for this year. OMG, how I agonized over all that! In general, I'm happy to take the advice of other people, especially my daughters, most of whom know more than I do, and ~ more importantly ~ seem confident in what they're doing.

2. What impresses you? 

Confidence, hah. Creativity, humor, kindness, empathy. 

3. On a scale of 1-10 how picky of an eater are you?  (1=extremely and 10=not at all) If you had to eat a meal made entirely of one color what color would you choose? 

This is a complicated question because on the one hand, I stick with the same basic meals and do not require nor generally desire anything fancy, but on the other hand, when I'm confronted with a list of foods many people hate, I'm fine with most of them, even if I usually don't eat them. For example, I love coconut, sushi, shrimp, oysters, mushrooms, olives, beets, eggplant, tofu, blue cheese, etc., but I don't usually eat any of that because I generally have the same boring salads and sandwiches and fruit. As I age, out of necessity I avoid a lot of fried food and other things that give me indigestion, so maybe overall I'm a 7.

I guess I would choose orange for my single-color meal because I could have cantaloupe to start, then a baked sweet potato, and uh... pumpkin pie for dessert!

4. What does balance in life mean to you? Does your life currently feel 'balanced'? 

To me, balance means that I work normal business hours, chat with my family most days (texting), hang out with friends on the weekend (a few times a month), and still have enough time for reading, writing, chores/ errands, puzzles, and loads of kitty snuggles. I am lucky in that my life feels balanced currently, though sometimes at the end of the month I have to work overtime.

5. If you could travel the world for a year what would be your first destination? 

I absolutely would not want to do this, no matter how much money I had. I would miss my family too much and also Inky! How could I leave Inky? I don't even like to be gone for one night.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Websites lately are so irritating, though I still find Blogger vastly preferable to WordPress (and I'm never going back). Whether it's an online store or a news site, you're bombarded with pop-ups and ads, and it's hard to even read an article anymore without being harassed. For example, I used to read People magazine to get the dish on celebs, but it's so obnoxious that I can no longer deal with it. Articles hang up before they finish loading because the ads are taking too long. On the other hand, sometimes an Instagram ad looks interesting, so I think OK let's see what this is all about. Nope. I can't even view whatever thing it is because the company would rather pester me to sign up for emails and deals than let me view the product in peace. You know what this reminds me of? In the olden days, we used to browse in meatspace stores (how quaint!), and salespeople were constantly pestering us with small talk and asking what we're looking for. We hated that then, and we hate it online!