Tile This

 Friday.  The skies are overcast.  Drizzly rain drizzles.  The sun might poke his nose through the clouds momentarily, but not for long.  Rain is on the menu as the forecast calls for nothing but a slow soaker until sometime tomorrow.  On the bright side, if you want to call it that, our temps are supposed to crest at 65 (F), which is super warm for February.  I honestly wish it would get sunny.  Maybe next week, since were supposed to have a weekend of wetness.

I did 2 miles on the treadmill yesterday, and then celebrated by doing to taxes.  I always get a refund, finding a way to put it to good use, and this year it's going to pay off the rest of my new kitchen expense.  And then maybe buy a rowing machine.  Yeah, I've been looking at them.  

My dishwasher gave me an error last evening as it was heading into the rinse cycle.  IO.  Now, I guess everybody knows what IO means:  In Out.  I checked on what might be causing that and the suggestions was a crimped water line.  Nope.  I have low water pressure sometimes.  I'll rutch it around a little, possibly even pull it forward a small bit, and then I'm going to need to figure out how I might be able to override it.

My tiling is going to be finished today, and some of the grouting will be done as well.  Here's what it looks like so far.

Closing arguments are today in the penalty phase of one of Trump's trials (doesn't it seem like this is happening every day?).  Prepare yourselves, for he will flip a fuse even if E. Jean Carroll is awarded $20, and most likely it will be in the millions.  This is the price he'll pay for bragging about shoving his fingers up her vagina.  He will try and go scorched earth.  He will burn down all caps words faster than he can build them. 

And there was a great article in the Washington Post this morning about how it will be necessary to destroy the Republican party if there's any desire for having it survive.  They will never learn, so every Republican who is part of the cult needs to be voted out of office.  American voters will need to crush the MAGA fantasy world.  I don't doubt for a second that's going to happen.  Those pouring over the stats from New Hampshire see horrific problems for the GOP.  Nikki Haley may have lost, but those 43% who voted for her are not going to vote for the Donald.  He might get the nomination, but he can't win an election with only 54% of the Republican party voting for you.

Mediterranean

 Well, it's Tuesday and finally I'm back to my old schedule of 4 sequential days off.  Now I can finally get back into my normal routines.  

Outside the temps are a cool 35 (F), though they're expected to climb up into the low 70s (F).  There was frost on the car windows but none on the grass, so does anybody know if that's considered the "first frost?"  I don't think so.  If it is, then we will get an Indian Summer this week with the temps expected to climb up into the high 70s (F), possibly even reaching into the low 80s (F).  That'll be nice.

The dishwasher Jon and I carried out to my driveway?  Well, I pushed it out the the curb when I got home from work since it's garbage day and, quite magically, it disappeared overnight.

I signed up for the Mediterranean diet on line basically because I was hoping to grow my list of recipes.  While I wouldn't say it's completely bogus and therefore a waste of $$$, I will admit that it's geared more towards selling you supplements like alfalfa sprouts and beauty collogen than anything else.  I already take a collogen supplement, and I can tell you, theirs is much more expensive.   The recipes are okay.  I was hoping for more actual Mediterranean (Italian and Greek) dishes and that didn't happen.  It seems as though whomever put it together thought that the only thing needed to make it Mediterranean was to add olive oil.  As a result, I'll be cancelling it shortly.  This spicy shrimp and rice dish I threw together is more Mediterranean then what they're offering.

The Republicans came back yesterday and are, I suppose, going to vote sometime today on the 9 8 candidates vying for Speakership.  Will one of them get elected?   Hhhmmm, probably not.  There are too many factions fighting for control of the party.  One interesting thing that I did see was that whomever they finally choose will need to have the blessing of the Orange Anus.  I keep wondering, how can they be so delusional.  He lost the popular vote, and that's before he staged an insurrection, before there were 91 indictments against him, before his cracker jack team of attorneys started flipping for the prosecution.  He is Obi Wan and will never, ever be their only hope.

Summer

 Friday!  The last day of decent weather.  Rain is on the way for tomorrow.  Of course, some friends from work will get married in the rain, though I suspect they'll be moving the ceremony in doors.  Temps are supposed to drop, too.  We'll be in the mid 50s (F) for a few days before climbing up into the mid 60s (F).  This is typical weather for this time of the year.

I used my new dishwasher for the first time yesterday.  First lesson learned:  do not use Auto.  It's like a slow motion wash taking over 3 hours (that includes the dry time).  From now on I'll just use Normal.  I can download settings if I want, but it's only me and my dishes and I don't see the need to do a deep dive into dishwasher specialization.

The granite countertop has been ordered.  Well, that's not quite right, it won't be ordered until they come and verify my measurements.  That should be in 7 - 10 days after the template has been approved.  Installation means I will have to remove everything from my cabinets.  The base cabinets are not going to be repainted until after the installation just in case there's dinging, and scratching.  I've chose a Summer Beach granite, which is similar to this.  It'll be interesting to see what the actual slab looks like.

I wasn't surprised to see that Steve Scalise dropped out of the race to be Speaker of the House, he couldn't get the necessary votes.  Chaos reigns in the House.  These problems were created by a small group of hardline conservatives who seem to be proving daily that they have no clue as to how to govern.  Because of their incompetence, they're going to lose badly this election cycle.  Good for them.

And, not surprisingly, a vast majority of Israelis blame Netanyahu for the Hamas terrorist attack.  I've said before that both Hamas and Hezbollah sat back and watched as Netty pushed the country into chaos when he tried to change their Supreme Court in order to keep his corrupt ass from going to jail.  This has always been a problem for conservatives who have always put their own self-interests first.  I wasn't surprised to see that Netty chose to form an interim government with the opposition party, he's desperately trying to keep from looking like the worst Prime Minister Israel has ever had.

Wrestle This

 Today's supposed to be just like yesterday, temps climbing into the low 70s (F), or to the boarder line of the upper 60s (F).  Nice.  I do need to go out and trim back the roses.  That shouldn't take me long.  

The kitchen's moving along nicely.  Today is going to be a paint day, and we all know how much I love to paint.  Rooting around in the basement, I found a half gallon of Kilz primer that I bought back when it was still cheap... or maybe I should say inexpensive, around $18 a gallon.  If I bought it today, I'd be paying between $27 and $31.  This is an example of a cost increase just so Behr can hit their 5% growth because for them that's the only thing that's important in life.

I had lunch at Black & Bleu yesterday with my cousin.  Usually the food is super great, I ordered a spicy shrimp and chicken dish that was only so so.  The waitress warned me it was going to be spicy, as though it were going to be spicy hot and... well, it wasn't.  I keep forgetting that for some people spice is terrifying, and the idea that their tongue might tingle frightening as all get out.  The dish is not something that I would order again.

I leveled the dishwasher yesterday before going to lunch.  This morning I will be securing it in place and running my first, half empty load just to insure that it works.  My flooring should be arriving tomorrow at the store.  I could have paid extra to have it delivered.  Sorry, I'm not old and feeble yet.  I can still carry in a 7 boxes of vinyl plank flooring.  As I'd said, originally I was going to go with some thing more white and marbly looking but when that was out of stock, chose something at the other end of the spectrum, Chateau Pond.  The blues and browns will coordinate well with my backsplash and countertops, and will make my white cupboards pop.

Of course, the Republicans proved again yesterday that they have absolutely no idea how to govern.  They nominated Steve Scalise to be Speaker of the House.  For those of you who don't know Stevie, he claims to be David Dukes without the baggage; David Dukes is a well known white supremacist.  His competition was little Jimmy Jordan, who used to be an assistant wrestling coach at OSU, and who had no problem looking the other way and helping to cover up charges that the team doctor was molesting a number of the wrestlers Jimmy was coaching.  I would not be surprised if little Jimmy has a Napoleon complex.

Walking into Mordor

 Say hello to Monday, the start of a brand new week.  The temps this morning were cool: 41 (F), and they are only expected to climb up into the lower 60s (F).  After today, they're expected to warm up, with temps climbing into the mid to upper 60s (F).  However, it will soon be too cold to take Lily for her morning walks.

Even though business was slow in Flooring yesterday, I did manage to sell one measure.  That's not what management wants.  We didn't meet our sales goal last week and I must say this reminds me of how things were pre-pandemic.  Goals were always higher than what we could earn as a way of encouraging us to sell more, to fill the shopping cart of every customer, whether they needed the merchandise or not because you didn't want the customer having to come back to the store for something they didn't know they were going to need.  I never quite understood the reasoning since today's customers return the things they don't need.  Perhaps corporate believes customers will buy something else after taking care of their returns. 

I drilled the holes for my drainage and supply lines for my dishwasher in the wrong place, so this morning I'm going to redrill before I head into work.  Otherwise, the dishwasher is ready to be hooked up.  I can't wait.

And, if anyone is interested, I saw this sweater I'd like for my birthday  😎😎.  Nifty, huh?

As the world still reels from Hamas' attack on Israel, certain Republicans in this country are trying to blame it on Biden's White House.  While this will resonate with their base, I don't doubt that most Americans are thinking that these losers need to give it a break.  Tuberville is still trying to make himself important by keeping a hold on military promotions.  The majority party (Republicans) has no leader in the House, ;though they're saying they should have one by Wednesday.  Of course, know that they are Republicans, the idea of pulling their heads out of their asses will simply never occur to them.

And when I heard that the terrorists had taken hostages, the first thing to cross my mind was Jimmy Carter and the Iran hostage crisis, and I'm thinking that was their main objective.  Killing and creating chaos was a big part of the attack, but the taking of hostages was evidently their main priority.  These losers want a bargaining chip.  Soon, they will threaten to begin executing them, one by one, in a very public way.  For all the world knows, these hostages may no longer be in Gaza, but may have already been moved to multitude of safer locations making rescue that more difficult.  We are watching the dark side of Islam, one that may eventually destroy the religion.

Lie to Impress

 Today... let there be sunshine!  And it was so... at least for the time being.  We might end up with overcast skies later in the day, but right now the sun is shining.  Temps are suppose to climb into the upper 60s (F), which is nice.  No rain is in the forecast, that's nice.  We've had so much lately.  To think, one of my retail associates told me that "we need rain."  I suspect she must get her weather information from Fox.

Quite a bit was accomplished yesterday in the kitchen renovation.  Shelves were taking down, the shelf / pot hanger was installed at the window.  And the dishwasher was delivered.  Originally, I had hoped that my contractor's boyfriend was going to install it, but his life is complicated and she told me he might need to bring his young son with to do the job.  So, I've started watching YouTube videos on installing dishwashers.  To my surprise, it's not that complicated at all.  

In 45 minutes, the electrician is supposed to arrive.  Once he's completed his work, the only left to do will be the cabinet / dishwasher install, the flooring, and painting.  Yes, that's right there is a lot of painting: the new wall, the cabinets (ice sculpture white), and the new baseboard.  I'm certain there will also be touch-ups on the previously painted walls.

And wasn't yesterday filled with delightfully bad Trump news?  The fraud case!  For over a decade he's been lying about his wealth because he's always wanted to be far more richer than he actually was.  For those of you have nurtured any doubts, his motto, his creed, his philosophy has always been this:  Lie to Impress.  I found it fascinating to see the ridiculously mundane excuses his legal team was using to try and delay his trial.  Thanks that yesterday, all that remains is sentencing, and hopefully Donnie and his spawn will get raked through the coils.  While his base is going to shriek and moan, this may speed up the exit of non-Republican supporters.

I found this amusing too:  over in the UK, social conservatives are upset with the government because Boris lied to them about Brexit.  The benefits he promised are not flowing in their direction.  Their middle-class lives have not changed for the better.  Keep in mind, Boris stacked his deck with one of Trump's favorite playing cards, the joker.  Boris, too, believed he could lie to impress.

Born Stupid

 Well, it's Tuesday... and it's still raining.  Not the steady soaking rains we had with Ophelia, but showery drizzles that are more of an annoyance than anything else.  They will,  at least according to the forecasters, end today.  Tomorrow things are supposed to brighten up and the temps are supposed to rise.  Today's high is only predicted to reach 60 (F).

As expected, yesterday was terrible for retail.  Again we failed to reach forecast.  In an odd sort of way, we're repeating the way things were prior to the pandemic.  Back then our plan was also high and many stores failed to reach it, but they came close.  Todays numbers don't do that, they are soooo low that our expected sales' goal is unreachable.  This is fine.  This is how corporations learn.  Wall Street will learn that greed has its limitations.

The new dishwasher arrives today.  I'm sort of excited.  I'd be more so if the cabinet was ready and it could be pushed into where it's supposed to go.  That won't happen until sometime next week.  I'm probably going to buy a case or two of water to help make it through the days when I'll be without a sink.  There's a faucet upstairs, but I don't really want to carry Lily's water bowl up and down the stairs.  Cooking is not going to happen since cleaning dirty dishes will be a hassle, unless I want to wash them in the bathroom sink.

And, of course, I do like dropping hints about my next book, and I don't think I've dropped this one so far, and it might be rhetorical, or it my be integral, but how might a stage lift come into play?

So, the question has been asked, what do you do when there are 2 unpopular candidates campaigning for the presidency?  Biden has his age, and Trump?  Well, let's be honest here, he has more baggage than Beyonce has people in her entourage, and believe me, Beyonce travels big.  Logically, you would choose the candidate with the least amount of issues, sadly, there is that group of people out there who will just sit on their thumbs and not vote rather than cast their ballot for the better of the two.  I don't understand that reasoning.  Do these people think that nothing's going to happen if by some horrific chance Trump gets elected?  Perhaps they don't.  You would think they would after Hillary's defeat.  But then, some people were just born stupid.