“Mine didn’t look like the ones in the picture”
That’s pretty much every recipe I try. Probably because I’m sloppy with measurements (or recipe writers are lying liars who lie).
Today it was buttery stovetop biscuits. They didn’t rise properly. Maybe my baking powder has gone off (it does). They tasted good, so I’m calling it a win.
You literally fry them on the stovetop, which is also a win – I hate faffing around with our oven.
Next up: homemade tabasco sauce. Uncle B brought in an enormous harvest of hot peppers this afternoon. Last year, I froze them. Year before, I dried them.
Oooooo…or I could add garlic and make sriracha!
Don’t forget now…back here tomorrow for Dead Pool 190! DO IT!
October 30, 2025 — 6:55 pm
Comments: 5
You probably know what’s coming
I had a fearsome crush on Bill Mumy. He had a gigantic career in TV and voiceovers, including as a child actor, well before Lost in Space. He has over 400 screen credits as of this writing.
I’m quite sure I read he was busted for cocaine in the Eighties, but Wikipedia doesn’t mention it and Grok says it ain’t so. Damn those rogue braincells.
He also is a musician. He’s released a number of solo albums and been part of a number of bands, but he was most famously half of Barnes and Barnes. And their famous single was? Fish Heads.
Heheheheh. That’ll be stuck in your head the rest of the day.
October 29, 2025 — 6:58 pm
Comments: 8
Nice
“Cacao nibs are small, crunchy pieces of pure, roasted (or raw) cacao beans — essentially chocolate in its most natural form, before sugar, milk, or other ingredients are added.” Thus spake Grok.
I read some article or other that said cacao nibs were good for you in some way or other and being the thoroughly gullible weasel that I am, I instantly ordered a kilo of them. Not sure if mine are roasted or raw – the label is a little ambiguous.
They have a pleasant crunchy texture and an earthy taste but, as you might imagine, they’re very bitter. I like bitter tastes, but I paired them up with honey sesame peanuts (which are ordinarily a little sweet for me) and they make a fantastic combo.
I wonder what they’re supposed to be doing for me?
October 28, 2025 — 6:35 pm
Comments: 6
A long time ago
So June Lockhart has finally copped it. I must say, I didn’t know she was still alive.
I was too young to remember Lassie except in occasional reruns, but I was a fanatical follower of Lost in Space. It ran from 1965 to 1968, so from my age five to eight. Yup, that’s the demographic.
They held a 30th cast reunion in Boston in 1995 and I went. A collectors expo. I didn’t stand in the autograph line or have my picture taken with the robot, but it was gratifying to see them nonetheless.
They were all there except Guy Williams, who died in 1989 (rumor had it of AIDS, but the Wikipedia doesn’t address that).
I remember June Lockhart wore white gloves and didn’t shake hands. I don’t know if I assumed or was told it was because of arthritis and it was too painful.
My gosh – that means this year would be the 60th!
October 27, 2025 — 6:58 pm
Comments: 6
Woowoo!
Just got home from a long journey by train. Nothing exciting, but I haven’t got time for a proper poast. So please enjoy this rather nice MidJourney illustration of a weasel on a train.
I don’t see any extra fingers or nothing. Well done, robot artist!
October 24, 2025 — 6:38 pm
Comments: 4
I wish I’d kept a diary
Must be five or six flights of geese a day going overhead now. They make such a hellacious racket. Come to think of it, if there are quiet geese, the could be many more.
I think I remember one other year that was this goosey.
I asked Grok and it told me they were coming from nesting grounds in the far north – Greenland or the arctic – to overwinter in the south of England or Europe. But that’s not the direction they all seem to be flying.
There – a group honked over just then.
They seem to be coming from the south headed northeast. I think. I called up a map, oriented myself on it and tried to figure it out, but it just made me dizzy. I probably have the worst sense of direction of anyone I know.
Handheld GPS was life-changing technology for me.
October 23, 2025 — 5:26 pm
Comments: 4
Poo with a view
This is a Dekoda. It’s made by Kohler, the tap people. It’s a camera sits in your toilet and takes pictures of your shit.
Kohler swears up and down that the camera can’t be turned around to film up, because that was my first thought.
It takes pictures of your shit and critiques it. I think it would give me performance anxiety. I mean, my grandma was obsessed with bowel movements, but I think even she would be grossed out by this.
The title is Uncle B’s, by the way. His other suggestion was PooFlix.
October 22, 2025 — 4:53 pm
Comments: 9
Retirement sucks
I haven’t been out of this armchair all day except to feed the chickens, make coffee and pee. I don’t think I’ve even read anything interesting online.
I’m not sure MidJourney understood the brief. The prompt was “weasel eaten by an armchair” and none of them showed that. It does make some adorable weasels, though. I did rather like the ermine with the bloody muzzle.
I liked this one because of the delightfully grungy red armchair. Works better in color.
October 21, 2025 — 4:55 pm
Comments: 4
Mood.
I blew out my rear tire over the weekend, somehow. A man with a van just came and took my bike away in a howling gale. We get some weather!
I mean, the tire is one thing, but it’s ten years old now and it shows. The cosmetics are grungy and the motor is starting to stutter. He’s going to give it a onceover and get back to me.
I’ll let you know the verdict. Surely the fact this man sells electric bikes won’t affect his judgement.
October 20, 2025 — 5:08 pm
Comments: 3
Thirteen years old
I’m doing a playthrough of Far Cry 3. My new laptop is snazzy, but it runs super hot, so I hoped a really old game wouldn’t flog the processor too hard.
I have a love/hate relationship with the Far Cry games. I always hate, hate, HATE the main story line, but love all the other bits.
Other bits: liberating towers (to see a map of the surroundings), hunting animals for their skins (so you can craft ever bigger containers to carry stuff in), being murdered by animals (I don’t love this, but it’s a defining characteristic of the series) and liberating villages. By “liberating” I mean single-handedly murdering everyone. It’s the best.
My strategy for this is what my strategy always is in computer games: find a perch high up and pick people off with a sniper rifle. I never realized this was deprecated until I was playing a multiplayer shooter and earned myself the nickname “camping bitch.”
Hey, I’m an old woman. You expect me to compete with the reflexes of 15-year-old boys?
How awful is the plot? In this one, you and your friends crash on an island controlled by pirates. You get separated and you learn the Ways of the Numinous Natives. At the end, you’re invited to stay provided you – SPOILER ALERT – murder all your friends, including your girlfriend.
There are six in the main series and thirteen including increments and DLC and, if I recall correctly, all the ones I played the story made me do one stinky thing.
Have a good weekend, everyone, and please don’t murder all your friends!
p.s. One of the best was an offshoot of this one: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. It was a piss take of 80s action films – and of other Far Cry games. Only computer game that ever made me put down my mouse and laugh.
October 17, 2025 — 5:55 pm
Comments: 6