Of Clouds And Lollipops

Got up yesterday morning baked 4 loaves of soda bread (here's a picture of 2 of them), ate some myself (I kept the 4th loaf) then schlepped out ot the island to deliver them to my brother, sister, and niece.

We went out for a fun dinner - the onion rings at this place are so good! even if the service was a little haphazard - and then I went home with my brother's family. It was early enough that I could have come back here, but my middle niece was like, "aren't you going to hang out with us?!" so of course I stayed, and ended up watching KPop Demon Hunters with middle and youngest niece (youngest was like I don't wanna! but at the end she was like, that was really good!). I should note that they are 27 and 24, but they still like hanging out with me! <333 And now we want the prequel about Rumi's mother and her demon affair.

My car this morning came 90 minutes early, so I rolled out of bed expecting to be able to have a bagel and a cup of coffee before I had to leave, but there he was, blocking the driveway, so I got home before I was even scheduled to leave.

The amount of benadryl and Zyrtec I have to take at their house because of the cat is ridiculous, and I ended up coming home and sleeping for most of the day. I'm glad I didn't cancel my PTO day tomorrow though - I scheduled it when this dinner was originally planned for tonight. I did tell my boss she could ping me if she needed me ahead of their meeting with the board chair tomorrow afternoon, but I so hope she doesn't.

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I don't love that Nolan McLean gave up 2 home runs in the same inning in this game, but I do love that Team Italia celebrates with an Armani blazer and an espresso (they literally have an espresso machine in the dugout and if someone hits a homer, he gets a shot) and then the team captain kisses the guy while everyone else does this: 🤌

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Work is currently bananas. Listen, I have a whole document I wrote on how to change/streamline board stuff to foster discussion and engagement, but we were supposed to do it methodically and not implement it until the June meeting, except now we are doing it NOW, and everything got upended in the stupidest way possible. I maybe kind of couldn't control how irritated I am about it because it is basically making me do double the amount of work and is seems to me like it is just going to achieve the exact opposite of what we want it to, but apparently this is coming directly from the new board chair. I told my boss that if I am right, and that this doesn't do what they think it is going to, I might not say it, but I will be thinking the world's biggest "I told you so." And she was like, that's fair. Sigh.

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Went to the office yesterday and as much as I enjoyed seeing so many of my co-workers, almost no work got done. it is just not a good use of time if they want us to be productive. Since it's an open office and we are all sitting together with no walls between us, we just chat and jump into each other's conversations and people stop by and also join in, and it's great for socializing but most of my work is stuff that requires concentration and quiet, which is in short supply at the office. But the anniversary celebration is a lot of fun and I probably won't have to attend another one for 4 more years. *g*

Our next in-office day is in late April, and I floated the idea of maybe bringing in baked goods, so I'm already considering what recipe I might choose to make, since I can experiment.

Today, I made these orange shortbread cookies and they're good, though I would zest another orange (I did 2 this time) if I make them again. Also I didn't sift the flour and instead of rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters, I rolled it into a log and just sliced them (after chilling), since they are just for me so there was no need to get fancy.

I also planned to caramelize onions overnight in the slow cooker, but then I ended up engrossed in F.D. Signifier's Tyler Perry video (which is FOUR HOURS long - I have one hour left but I'm taking a break to watch the WBC) and didn't end up doing the slicing I need to do, so I figure I'll do it in the morning, let them slow cook for most of the day, and then make French onion pasta for dinner. Anyway, I have never seen a Tyler Perry movie or show, but F.D. Signifier's videos are always worth watching.

So yeah, I've been sort of paying attention to the WBC and why is the "S" in USA like a strip of curly bacon on the Team USA jersey??? Once I saw it I couldn't unsee it. Also so many of these unis could be cool and yet so many of them are just meh. Design fail, Nike! Come on! Also, I might be rooting for the DR since Juan Soto is on that team; if Lindor were in it, I'd probably be rooting for Puerto Rico. Though of course I was pleased for Clay Holmes just now, and will be interested to see Nolan McLean pitch.

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Work has been intensely busy these past few days, and tomorrow I have to go into the office because Assistant J is getting a pin for being with the organization for 5 years (even though it's more like six and a half at this point, but no one wants to hear my rant about how anniversaries work again), and I never get much done when I'm in, so we'll see what happens. I do have to take all my tax paperwork and scan it for my accountant. This is much later than usual, eep.

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Shrinking: Dereks Don't Die
( spoiler )

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Lost Recipes was a really good read "about the legal and logistical barriers arrayed against people trying to archive rap media." to quote the email from Defector that included the link. It made me think about how despite its many, many issues (about which I have heard no news of progress at all, btw), the OTW is doing that work for this section of media fandom, and how important that work is (and how no one else was gonna do it). There's already so much that's gone, and that impacts how our stories get contextualized and passed on (thinking of all the thinkpieces on Heated Rivalry that only reference yaoi and animanga fandom and not Western media fandom, for example) and whatever place in the larger history of media and fandom this corner of it might have. Idk. I do recommend reading that post though, even if you're not a rap fan.

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