KelleWatts (She/her/ella)

I'm finally (finally?!) feeling motivated about training, though still not for any particular thing. Just trying to get back into and stay within the green. I had some heart rate monitor issues that led to stopping during my duathlon ride but *still* got an FTP increase notification. Getting fitter.

Screenshot from NYT Spelling Bee game: Queen Bee: You found everything! All 33 words worth 183 points. No, I did not try very hard or take very long. It was just one of those days, maybe because I got over 8 hours of sleep or something. I feel pretty great.

Today in weird observations: I had a dance party in the kitchen while loading the dishwasher and paying bills. I always listen to music for these activities, why the joyful movement today? It's the socks. Barefoot summer is great but you can't slide and spin until it's cold. Also, this happened.

Administrators at Indiana University baselessly fired the student media director and ordered the student paper to cease its print edition, so it'd sure be a shame if this excellent digital front page were to be widely shared today

issuu.com/idsnews/docs...

While trying to navigate amidst pedestrians in a bike infrastructure hole #UIllinois intentionally created when they prioritized other things, I fell on my way to choir practice last night. No blood, but the back of a knee is bruised. Don't think I hit it but will get a new helmet just in case.

Two dogs on a wooden deck - black and white dog laying in a sunny spot on the foot of a lounge chair, brown dog perched at the top of the stairs surveying the yard. Green grass and a red shee in the background.

They're not spoiled at all.

Also, I won my first #Zwift race in a while last night. It felt good. My squad had a rider with serious connection issues throughout the race finish near the back but we still got 🥉 and would definitely have won if she had even been middle of the pack.

And then suddenly I was much less excited. "Archbishop-designate Mullally subscribes to the church’s position that marriage is between a man and a woman, though she has urged a more inclusive tone." I'm not keen on that, whatever that is trying to imply, either. Alas.

The NYT got it better but didn't they mean "proponent" rather than "exponent?" Is a "vocal exponent" even a thing?

I'm still excited about Archishop-designate Sarah Mullally even if the press is...whatever this is.

Again not reading. She said "elected Democrats" and "Democrats in power," and you somehow are equating that to "no Dems" and are demanding a clarification. Stop microprocessing/intentionally misreading her, unless you really just want to argue and that's the whole point of your commentary.

Logarithmic graph of time durations on the X axis and raw watts on the Y axis. Two curves are shown - 90 day in orange and all-time best in black. 2 minute power is highlighted with a line intersecting both curves - 391 W for the past 90 days and 406 W for all time.

I've been racing on #Zwift since 2020 and a lot of my best numbers have come from racing for ATP. Today I stumbled upon this, which apparently includes all my bests. It's both nice that I'm close in some ways to where I was before breaking my leg but also note the yawning gaps. So close but so far.

Today's speech is exactly what one expects from someone who flounced from the Individual Ready Reserve due to his white supremacist tattoos

I'm not sure that you're actually processing her words. Her implication is that Dems need to be loudly pointing at this as an abuse of power and loudly throwing every Republican's words from when they called actions less abusive than this right back at them, using historic and more recent examples.

Square bowl with orange soup, spoon, and piece of sourdough bread on top.

Looks pretty good!

Coffeeneuring Challenge 2025: You’re Only 15 Once Readers. Bike riders. Randonneurs. Always Be Coffeeneuring Club members. Scenesters. People (on Earth)!  It’s back again and it’s a big one. That’s right, it’s the 15th edition of the Coffeene…

Full details now announced!

chasingmailboxes.com/2025/09/29/c...

Thanks for the reminder!

Trying Melissa Clark's Red Lentil Soup recipe. I've never made lentils before - I've always been a bit intimidated - but this looks hopefully simple enough. Weirdly, I've mostly learned how to cook from the #NYT, starting 20 years ago with Mark Bittman's The Minimalist vlogs. So far so good.

Loyalty oaths are more likely the case (hoping for that is a sign this really is the weirdest timeline), but if I lived or worked anywhere near there, I would probably decide to take the opportunity for at least a day trip as far from Quantico as I could get.

At my company our executives don't all take the same airplane anywhere. Folks do sometimes meet in person but we've deemed that to be an acceptable risk because, importantly, we're not the military.

In addition to Tuesday leaving our troops without local leadership, how is this an acceptable risk?

We're moving there in a few years and I guess I know one bank we won't use...

Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals The Pentagon has summoned military officials from around the world for a gathering in Virginia. Top generals and their staffs don’t know the reason for the meeting.

In 1935 German leadership called a surprise meeting and informed their previous oath to uphold the Weimar constitution was now void and they instead must swear a personal oath to the Führer. Many claimed they didn’t like the order, but they did it anyway.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Hi @npr.org! We worked late tonight putting together this handy pocket guide!

It doesn't address road design issues, but if we're going to educate road users, we should include drivers.

It's the size of a folded business card. Print it, fold it, put it in your wallet!

👇

Log Cabin Republicans Disrupted Yasmin Williams’s Kennedy Center Performance - Washingtonian Staffers say center president Ric Grenell's office set aside passes for the group, which booed and heckled the musician.

Read that again. Trump-appointed Kennedy Center head Ric Grenell specifically set aside a block of 50 seats at the Kennedy Center so a group of Trumpers could heckle a Black woman performer.
www.washingtonian.com/2025/09/23/l...

Opinion | Civility Is a Fantasy

I wrote about the dangerous fantasy of the civility framework in political discourse. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/24/o...

Today is 30 days. I think it's my first time going that long other than when I broke my leg and didn't dare mix alcohol with pain meds. I tried a bunch of times but always made excuses such as Sundays in Lent or special celebrations. Dunno if it's permanent. Dunno anything. Gotta stop coping w food.

I am so over non-scientists and non-doctors stymieing years of development and success in bringing down maternity risks and infant/childhood mortality rates. Most of the population has never seen a measles outbreak but he's old and has! How can he not understand how important vaccines are?

Somewhere out there is an expectant mother with a fever. Yesterday she would have happily taken meds to bring her fever down, knowing that her fetus is more at risk from her fever than acetaminophen. Today she is likely to burn up or take other more risky drugs, and Armchair-Dr. #Potus is to blame.

Constant pain, inability to take care of herself, and everything else that comes with a disability almost certainly made her meaner, manipulative, and robbed her of autonomy. I have hope for you now for freedom in the present, but even more hope for the not-yet, knowing the Kingdom is better. 4/4

I imagine that she is probably enjoying gardening, learning to play instruments again, even simple stuff like dressing herself, choosing clothing based on what she wanted instead of the utility of easy removal in the event of an emergency, cooking (including chopping her own stuff), etc. 3/4