Rogue Panda on Rampage

The touring cast of Kinky Boots that is currently in Long Beach is giving it everything they've got. This show is so much fun!

I forgot I had this. Enjoy!

I just got my first obscene phone call at my current job. I'm kinda surprised it took that long, TBH. It was on speaker phone, too, so the entire office got to hear it.

Excellent photo! I love it when my cat does that.

(He was driving. Twice.)

How my mind works:

I call my dad, and he doesn't answer: He's probably in the bathroom.

I call him 15 minutes later, and he doesn't answer: He's probably driving.

I call him 30 minutes after the second call: HE'S FALLEN AND TRAPPED UNDER SOMETHING HEAVY.

Greenpeace launched a campaign in Luxembourg to protest against Amazon/Jeff Bezos accusing them of tax evasion and support to the Israeli military.

Presentation slide 1, with a purple background and white and pink writing that says the following: Our Flag Means Death AND WHY REPRESENTATION MATTERS IN TELEVISION

I made a PPT presentation for my class. The assignment was to make a ten slide presentation on a topic of my choosing. What did I choose? Our pirates, of course. 🥹 It got me emotional, making it, thinking about how it should’ve never been cancelled, so I wanted to share it here. 🧵

Members of my family in four different states ate this recipe on Thursday. My cousins' children and grandchildren use this recipe. My nieces will use it someday, too, and it makes me very happy.

Typed on an old, stained index card is a recipe for turkey stuffing: Turkey broth (we make it with water, the giblets, and an onion, but I've seen it sold at the supermarket) 1 1/2 lbs dried, broken bread 1 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped 1 1/2 cup celery, finely chopped 2/3 cup vegetable oil 1 tsp. poultry seasoning 2 tsp. table salt 1/2 tsp. white pepper 1 tsp. ground thyme 1/2 tsp. sage (Mom and I omit this, but it's in the original recipe) 2 tbsp. chopped parsley When you're ready to stuff the turkey and start cooking it: Saute onions and celery in the vegetable oil over medium heat, until the onion and celery are slightly translucent. In a very large pot or bowl, pour about 1/4 of the bread, about 1/4 of the mixed herbs, about 1/4 of the onion-celery-oil mix. Stir and moisten with the hot turkey broth. Repeat with more bread, herbs, and vegetables in layers. mixing everything together so it is moistened but not soggy or mushy. Stuff the turkey with the warm stuffing, cover with foil, and put it in the oven. Dad got an 11 pound (5 kg) turkey this year, and about 85% of this recipe fit into the turkey. I put the remaining stuffing mix into a baking dish, poured more broth over it, covered it with aluminum foil, and baked it at 325 F after the turkey came out. It's never quite as good as the stuffing that cooked in the bird, but I still like it.

I love using a family recipe typed on a card that is soft and stained from use over decades, measuring and cooking, and eating the delicious product of my labor. It tastes the same as when Mom, Nana, Aunt Em, and Aunt Jo made it. Cooking is care and love, it's art, it's time travel. It's joy.

Dad stood for a minute in Jimbo's unit, looking at his son's things and weeping. But he also wept with joy once he sat in the newer recliner in our living room, comfortable for the first time in over a year. I am so freaking happy for him. (And happy for me, because I really need a new bed.)

One of the storage units was rented by Mom when my brother was incarcerated. It wasn't taking up much room, so my cousins moved Jimbo's stuff to Dad's unit in the same facility. Once they pulled out the recliner and bed, there was plenty of room for Jimbo's stuff.

They also threw Dad's old recliner out, which he'd sat on so long that he felt the wood through the worn-down cushion under his butt.

(Sorry, neighbors, for the recliner in the dumpster. There was nowhere else to put it.)

At my cousin's house on Thursday, I engaged her son to come to Dad's storage units and move some furniture to our apartment. He brought his father, and in three hours, we met at the storage facility, consolidated 2 units into 1, and brought a new (to me) bed, Dad's dresser, and Dad's recliner home.

Computer, please summarize everything PG Wodehouse ever wrote in ten seconds

Home | WLRP Home

A few Indigenous organizations in New England to support:

The Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project is working to restore the Wôpanâak language within the Wampanoag Nation:

www.wlrp.org

And I got to see my Aunt Cat, who was my dad's sister-in-law. She lives in Arizona, so I don't see her often. I remember her being petite, but she must have shrunk even more over the last few years; she is minuscule now. I'm not tall, maybe the upper side of average, and she comes to my collarbone!

Same dog, different toy. He dragged me all over the backyard last year, too.

(Dad changed his mind about going to lunch at my cousin's house, obviously. I was here for Thanksgiving last year, too.)

He just spent five minutes affectionately and gently gnawing on my right wrist. Such a good dog.

Same dog, different Thanksgiving. He's still very strong, and he dragged me all over my cousin's backyard.

I know my old iPod Shuffle is around here somewhere. I can charge it and have my music blasting on the earbuds while he watches two films and three football games at the same time.

Sigh.

Thank you for letting me vent.

Inner peace. Grey rock. Inner peace. Grey rock. Inner peace.

The plan was to go to my cousin's house today and then make a minimal lunch tomorrow at home. I'm still doing the lunch and have started food prep. I hate being subjected to others' TV choices while I cook or clean, so I asked for media control for one hour. You'd have thought I wanted the moon.

Dad's in his woebegone, "I am miserable, so everyone I come in contact with must be miserable, too" holiday mood. I have baked two different kinds of brownies for a holiday lunch we are not going to attend. I need to go grey rock for a bit to maintain my sanity, so I am taking a nap.

(next to a crossed out Home Depot logo) “Home Depot has allowed its parking lots to become ground zero for ICE raids on immigrant day laborers, and its billionaire co-founder Bernie Marcus has funneled millions into Trump's campaigns.” (next to a crossed out Target logo) “Target, which once branded itself as the friendly, inclusive big-box store, has now scrapped its DEl goals and scaled back LGBTQ+ offerings to avoid angering the regime.” (next to a crossed out Amazon logo) “Amazon didn't just shower Trump's inauguration with cash -- Jeff Bezos' company pitched facial-recognition tools to ICE and powers the Palantir systems ICE uses to track and deport immigrants, making Amazon a core contractor for the regime's deportation machine.”

It’s the busiest shopping period of the year, so we’re hitting pause on buying from corporations that enable Trump’s fascist agenda: weaintbuyingit.com/?utm_source=bluesky

So we in the office "adopted" a family in need to give holiday presents to. Supervisor F took responsibility for the single parent (who is also a college student), and I'm coordinating the kids' stuff. I just spent three hours getting paid to shop. Best day at work ever.

Chocolate Peanut Butter!

The art is gorgeous, and my strongest thought has been, "I could get that sword and have that cat purring in two minutes."

I miss sane people being in office.