I got misty eyed at least three times during the 2024 Grammys

The first tears formed when the camera panned up to reveal Tracy Chapman during the performance of Fast Car. I was so moved I almost Tweeted, which is saying a lot. (video)

Also verklempt when Annie Lennox joined Wendy and Lisa covering NOTHING COMPARES 2 U in a tribute to Sinead O’Connor. (video)

And again when Celine made an appearance to present an award at the end. She’d been out of the public eye for so long, it was simply nice to see her.

Back to Tracy Chapman, that song resonates so much to this day, as does her entire debut album. There’s been lots of pixels spilled on the matter… (Kottke collects a few links and thread, a NY Times piece, countless social media posts.) I hope the tides of thought continue to rise.

Nutritional information liberator

While at Costco I flip around boxes to reveal nutritional information and then leave it like that for other customers. I feel this is a valuable service I provide along with bringing in carts from the parking lot.

I’m almost always aghast when I really scour these labels and see sodium and fat numbers that are off the charts. (These halloumi cheese fries and bacon wrapped stuffed jalapeños are not great examples, but really it’s a minefield across the board.)

Hang-wringing aside, the Reese’s Dipped Animal Crackers are worth every violation of good judgement.

Frozen fried Halloumi and Stuffed Jalapeños at Costco

Bonus shot of cake decorating options include: American Flag, Costco Bear, Candles, Roses – with Color, Scored, Balloons, Rainbow, Cross, Happy Lunar New Year and Baby Shower.

Trivia Night 2024: WMMS

Our theme for the McGuffey Montessori School’s annual fundraiser was news station. Tom made a spinning light-up tower with our call letters. We dressed as camera operators, reporters, photographers and a producer with all the accoutrements and whatnot.

I still have absolutely zero trivia chops, but provided moral support even though I forgot the remote to the big TV that was going to be a backdrop and cycle through photos from the evening. (Wendy persevered with multiple trips to the school to grab needed cables and replacement monitor.)

Like every year, it was a hoot.

I’ve oodles of snapshots, and even more from others to pull together. Here’s a few on McGuffey’s site.

The light in the corner

A neighbor asked if we kept our Christmas Tree up year-round as we have one of those LED trees with white lights in the living room that we use as a floor lamp — mostly because we don’t have enough floor lamps.

I picked up this colorful bar lamp there but undecided if it’s appropriate. I feel like it might work better in the background of a Twitch stream…

Anyway, things are dense ’round these parts. I have a tiny slice of time between video animation renders to squeeze in a journal post before burning more oil.

(Oh, why’s the picture sideways? Because the other snapshots from this day are really boring and this one wasn’t much better.)

Reliable Containers

Exterior work is almost finished on the new Kohl’s and Jo-Ann stores that are replacing the old Remke Market in Oakley. I passed by on the way to the post office. Some days, it’s just this exciting.

Devil’s Ivy

I’ve had a few plants expire recently — a small money tree and palm from IKEA. They were always teetering on collapse and I couldn’t read their pleas. I will have a ceremony to thank them for their companionship and release them to the compost.

I’m hoping that this Devil’s Ivy from Casey’s mom lasts longer. It’s a durable houseplant that doesn’t require direct light or constant care.

Unrelated:

Foot is a little better each day!
I really need to focus on cardiovascular health.
Today’s soundtrack by Khruangbin is thanks to the YouTube algorithm, the accompanying video has a Wes Anderson vibe.

Trying out Green Chef

First things first, I can put weight on my left leg for short periods of time!

I vowed to make active changes to support movement and longevity if it subsided.

Baby steps. (Literally.) Once this heals fully, I need to seriously incorporate activity to support balance, flexibility and sturdiness.

Somewhat unrelated, we decided to try out another meal kit service. Reasoning:

The relentlessness (of meal planning)
We had a great trial (thanks Dan)
Learning new recipes, techniques and ideas

And after watching You Are What You Eat on Netflix, I’m really, really interested in more vegetarian (and vegan) meals.

First up was Barramundi with Chipotle-Lime Aioli. Verdict? Green Chef does a lot of prep unlike other meal kits (having the carrots diced was nice). Overall? Easy to pull together, tasted great. Was something different than usual. Would make again.

Will report back after we have a few more meals under the belt.

Update: The Kale & Bean Stuffed Peppers (vegan) was quite tasty — filling and flavorful, did not animal proteins and the cashew parmesan was super good. Downside? This meal had the highest calorie count of our selections.

Adding lights to a LEGO kit

I assembled this Galaxy Explorer a few years ago and really enjoyed the process. I dusted it off after Tom dropped by with this kit is from Lightailing to give it LED sparkle.

The kit comes with a battery pack, bundle of LEDs and a nicely designed and printed instruction book on how to take it apart and add said lights. There’s also a link to a YouTube video which proved quite handy for a few bits. The wires connecting all the lights are super thin and mostly tucked in between pieces and not visible. I may have been a little sloppy.

Whole thing took about 45 minutes and I was amazed at the transformation, particularly the siren effect side lights that came on a plastic disk so thin, it snapped between the existing Lego pieces.

Now I’m eyeing the kit for the VW Bus sitting on the next shelf up…

Here’s a short video that shows a bit of the lights in action:

Digging this little photo printer

The Canon Selphy CP1500 photo printer is absolutely delightful.

It makes prints near as good as ones from CVS or Walgreens through a dye sublimation process. What is that exactly? Three films of cyan, magenta, and yellow are transferred using heat to paper and a layer of protective coating is added on top.

Pros:

4×6 borderless prints
The last pass of coating can be glossy, semi-gloss or satin
Photos are smudge proof, waterproof and should last 100 years
Takes 40 seconds for each print
Costs about .33¢ a photo
Colors are great!

Cons:

Requires memory card or phone for printing (no desktop app)
Creates waste as the ink cartridge is replaced every 50 shots (comes included with paper, can be dropped off at FedEx for recycling)
Those used cartridges contain ghosts of your photos
Paper is not as thick as drugstore prints, but really close

I’m having a blast printing and just sent a handful of snapshots to friends. (Also realizing I need to curate favorites again because of photo overload.) I’m hoping I can find some tasteful peel and stick postcard backs.

At the end of the day? Super happy with this purchase, can recommend.

Analog the digital!

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

Another day where leaving the house wasn’t quite in the cards.

Kathryn stopped by in the morning with bagels and books, then Mike and Joe in the evening with takeout and games.

I am thanking every lucky star.

First up was a VR game called Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, here’s the description:

One player is trapped in a virtual room with a ticking time bomb they must defuse. The other players are the “Experts” who must give the instructions to defuse the bomb by deciphering the information found in the Bomb Defusal Manual. But there’s a catch: the Experts can’t see the bomb, so everyone will need to talk it out –fast!

It was a nerve-racking hoot — the ultimate game of “use your words.”

We also played Trombone Champ (silly fun) and a wee bit of Rock Band (our friend Mike is extremely good).

An extra tip of the hat to Evan for the Hermanos Gutiérrez album which proved to be a great soundtrack for hanging.

Das Boot

Amazon has some redeeming qualities. One of them is medical things delivered quickly. If I went to a local pharmacy chain I could get a therapeutic device of lesser quality and higher price. I don’t know if this is a matter of chicken before the egg but that’s how it is now.

So I ordered this boot and paid just a wee bit extra for a Reebok-like pump to provide compression.

It arrived the next morning. And as silly as that pump thing is, oh my word it works really well.

A foggy trip to the doctor

I kind of learned how to navigate with crutches and went to see my doctor about the intense foot pain. It was SUPER FOGGY everywhere, a total vibe and a little scary because of visibility.

Oh if I only I was more mobile, I’d have gone to the river and downtown.

My doc says I strained my Achilles tendon majorly — probably from long walks on the beach. (Seriously.)

RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) was the prescriptive advice — and I should start to put weight on it. (Wince.)

I looked for a drive-thru lunch option afterward. Luckily for my health the Long John Silvers was closed because their fryers were busted. But they’ve updated their signage and it’s so much better than before!