Good morning. Hello. How are you? #810
Weekend activities, small vitories with kitties and kids, Canadian TV weather, heart hypchondria, button repair, Aubrey Plaza.
Good morning! Hello, there, happy Monday, how are you? Lovely weekend? I had a pretty good one. Except for the part where I just woke up, looked at the news and read about three different mass shootings in this country. A drive-by that killed six, including kids, in a house somewhere. Another club shooting? And another one. It was too much, we really are a broken country, it is awful. Sure would be nice if there was something we could do about it. Sure would be nice if everyone got rid of their guns, even if it is fun to shoot them in Vegas or whatever. Sure would be nice if they all just magically disappeared. I wonder what would happen. Hrm that seems like a decent premise for a prestige HBO drama, though of course being a prestige HBO drama horrible things would happen to everyone and then gun owners would say “see?” Okay maybe not.
Weekend was nice, got a lot of little things done. Spent a lot of time organizing files. I have a lot of free time on the weekends when I’m not gardening. Did the compost, turning that behemoth sure is a challenge. It still has all of the tomato vines in it and they are slowly decomposing but not enough to break down yet. Last year I chopped em up I really should have done that again this year. They’ll get there, but it’s slow, and I have to keep adding a lot of carbon to keep it tame. Which is fine because shredding cardboard is the most satisfying activity in the world.
Made more tom yum bone broth. Remembered to put some rice vinegar in it this week. Probably not quite enough but at least it as the tang. Also remembered the chilis this time and… wow. I have these ancient, ancient dried chili peppers that Emma got from her upstairs neighbor before we moved in together so, you know, about a decade old. And man they have a kick. If I die this week, that’s why.
Delicious, though.
I had two huge milestones this weekend that are worth notating:
For the first time ever, and after two previous daddy bedtimes, Jane said “I don’t want mommy bedtime I want daddy bedtime.” This is the first time ever she said she preferred a daddy bedtime over a mommy bedtime or, really, a daddy anything over a mommy anything and I’m sure it’s just cuz she wanted to watch Cardboard World or something, but still, I am very happy.
Also for the first time ever, Keely elected to sit in my lap. I picked this kitty out of the litter when we adopted her because I thought we had a special bond and almost immediately after entering into our household she ended up preferring Emma to me and always sat in Emma’s lap and not mine, but this weekend she hopped up and sat in my lap and it was so nice.
In a couple hours I am going to the posh new UNC Medical clinic on Eastowne to get some dye injected into me and then going into an enclosed space (I guess? The appointment reminder said “let us know if you’re claustrophobic”) while they watch the dye get pumped through my body so they can see if my heart is doing its job because I am at the tail end of my once-a-decade heart hypochondria. (Is there a word for once-a-decade? Decinnial or something? Hrm. Yes. That is it.) It always turns out fine, I always feel kind of dumb freaking out and getting all these tests but, then, I suppose it’s probably good to get the old ticker checked out once in a while, especially once you’re a white dude in his fifties who is slightly overweight and has slightly high blood pressure and used to smoke and whatnot. Hrm well, when you put it that way, fingers crossed I guess. Also I can’t eat any solids this morning so it’s a bit of a mini dress rehearsal for the colonoscopy in two weeks my god aging is such a bummer you don’t need to hear about any of this.
Long-time GMHHAY readers will recall that I used to talk about the posh new UNC Medical clinic on Eastowne in GMHHAY when my mother was living with me and I was attending to medical needs. They’re the ones that made me take my mask off and use one of theirs when I was wearing an N95. Lots of covid theater back in 2020. Who wants to bet that now there is zero covid theater and they don’t even wear masks anymore.
So I got this amazing new jacket. I mean, I have so many jackets I did not need another one, but I needed this one, which was a collaboration between Knickerbocker NYC and Ghostly. It is a chore coat. This was a bit of an extravagent purchase, but I mean, I love chores, I love coats, I love Ghostly, what’s not to love? Very exciting. I am ready to do a bunch of chores in my chore coat.
Except one of the buttons came apart. And these are, like, special one-of-a-kind Ghostly buttons. Well, not one-of-a-kind, obviously, there are like five on each coat but they are unique to this coat. It’s like a dented rivet or something. SO I email Ghostly and they have remarkable customer service but quite reasonably say they don’t know a whole lot about coat button repair. They offer to send me a new one, but they sold out of my size — they only made, like, seven or something. They offer to send a smaller size but that won’t work. They suggest talking to Knickerbocker. I email Knickerbocker and they also have great customer service but say they gave all the extra buttons to Ghostly. So then I email Ghostly again and tell them this and the customer service dude, bless his soul, goes looking for the buttons and asks around but no one can find them. They tried. I am impressed.
So now it’s occurring to me that I should just fix this button but I don’t know how it works really. I think I can see the problem, and maybe I could fix it, but I’m still a bit confused. I’m pretty sure there’s some sort of rivet tool at play here.
Anyway, here’s a picture. One thing I’m noticing is that the inside part of the button and the part that it rivets onto it are probably both not custom and maybe I can obtain a new assembly. Or use some verrrrry small needlenose pliers to re-rivet somehow? It is a mystery. Anyone know about these things that could help? Would a tailor know? Are these buttons common?
So we’re finally getting around to watching Letterkenny, which is as good and funny as everyone told me it was. Giving me some ptsd flashbacks of Fairbanks, a bit, what with, you know, throwing raves at rented halls with meth heads that sort of thing. But really what’s infinitely distracting is my wife’s recent observation and obsession with the fact that no Canadian sitcom export to America ever shows the weather being bad in Canada. What is up with this? It is so weird. It’s always warm and sunny in Letterkenny (so far, we’re not that far along), in Kim’s Convenience, in everything else. She is genuinely wonder if Canada’s Can-Con laws require it to always be sunny in Canada. Like, the X-Files can film in Vancouver and it’s always dark and gloomy, but if a Canadian show films in Vancouver it has to be bright and sunny. If there are any Can Con experts out there, drop a line so we can let my wife know if her theory is correct or not.
While we’re on the subject of TV, watched the season premiere of SNL last night, Aubrey Plaza hosted, I was unaware she was a blonde now, it freaked me out, and I had never seen her do straight perky comedy before and she was good at it but my god it was so weird. One of Aubrey Plaza’s first acting jobs was in a single episode of 30 Rock as a page because… she was an NBC page. At SNL. So this begs the question: is Aubrey Plaza the first NBC page to host SNL? I asked my friend Dan who is a bit of an SNL scholar and he said it was the first had heard of.
If so, congratulations, Aubrey Plaza! Quite an accomplishment.
W Hotel Lobby in a Better, Alternate Universe playlist for you today. All new stuff. Good stuff. Man the world has a lot of good music in it. People make so much good new music. And people just keep making it! It is 2023 and I’m lisening to new albums by Belle and Sebastian, Iggy Pop and Guided by Voices that really is something. What a world.
Until tomorrow!