I had a butterfly apron I couldn’t use for an apron because I don’t like the shape. I was waiting for some use for the butterflies as motifs. Finally, the first use! Patching a hole in a screen. I zigzagged around the butterfly, then tacked it to the screen by hand. When the sun comes through, it looks intentional!
It’s the thickest heaviest flannel I’ve ever come across. It’s a queen size flat sheet and it is absolutely going to end up as a dress with long sleeves.
ChatGPT takes a crack at it –
Ummmmm wut? That’s pretty, but I want the stripes going vertically.
Okay!
Oh, boy, ChatGPT.
There was lots of attempts to explain in words.
How about another AI? “thenewblack” gives a free sample.
THAT’S what I had in mind!
Then I realized I gave that AI an advantage because I rotated and cropped the image of the fabric first. I explained to ChatGPT that it was an image of a folded sheet, buuuut… baby steps.
Given the same advantage to start with, ChatGPT does better. But unfortunately I said “illustration” and I didn’t say “a girl wearing…” and that’s the end of my free images for today.
Wow I’ve been having technology adventures! I talked about the printer already, or maybe I have yet to. Then there’s the phone. I had to switch to Verizon, and my Galaxy A11 wasn’t compatible. Long story and a couple hundred bucks in fees for the new free phone, I guess it’s all settled down now, and my data works better. We have cell service only when we plug in the signal booster.
We were so leery about that “WE Boost”, since we’d read so many bad reviews, and we unpacked it carefully, keeping all the material for the return we fully expected, but then plugged it in et voila, five bars! It works great, but boy, it sucks the juice. My little folding solar panel is enough for our needs if we’re very conservative and if I’m out there babysitting it all day long, moving it to wherever the sun’s shining, but I can’t run the booster for very long. The idea is plug it in, download a bunch of stuff, unplug.
We have to work for our communication, here. That’s part of why I needed “Playground” set up with the Postie plugin so I can post by email with pictures. I can compose offline at leisure, then upload everything efficiently. It’s good! At least it’s better than writing by hand and then waiting for your friends’ reply to come around the Horn.
It’s not really 1840.
Question for self. “If you COULD suddenly be in 1840, would you?”
Craving for heart waffles. Darling says we can run a 700 watt appliance – in the summer – and not for very long.
What’s the alternative?
Only half a waffle iron. For only a few dollars more
I could have had the real thing with both halves and the trivet that used to come with it. But I don’t want those, so it would have been a few dollars wasted.
I had a cast iron waffle maker back at that other place I used to live. It was left behind of course. And we say no more about that.
It was the typical round style. Oh, here, Walmart still has them.
When I first got it, I fiddled and fumed, and made a mess, and made another mess, was hot and bothered, frustrated, etc. Then figured out you only need one half. After that, it’s a snap. It works like this.
Easy. Use two burners. Have half a waffle iron and a frypan on the heat at the same time. Pour the batter on the waffle iron, and it ISN’T going to make a mess, because nothing’s going to come down and squish it out all over the landscape. It’s not going to rip apart, because you don’t have to lift anything to check if it’s done enough. When it’s done enough, lift the corners with a fork to loosen them, and flip the whole thing over onto the griddle to cook the back.
Srsly nobody’s going to lift their waffle from the plate to see if both sides are the same.
My darling says (of my infernal honesty), “You’ll have to tell them!”
No, I won’t. This is technically and truthfully a waffle. It’s crispy and made of hearts.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with hearts despite some of the theories of their origins. No shapes are inherently bad. Not gonna digress here (although would love to) but geometry isn’t bad, any more than guns are bad. It’s people who are evil.
I also bought one of these.
It was just so very beautiful. So very swirly, and made my heart sing. My darling is mostly Nordic and has never eaten krumkake, and I felt the need to remedy that.
He still hasn’t eaten krumkake. I made a fantastic mess, and cleaned it up, and made another one, and later tried another method, and grumbled and groaned and lost my temper. The fails weren’t even edible, just scrapings of mess. He may be Norwegian but I’m not, so I couldn’t manage. I’m German and this thing is NOT efficient which means it’s out the door. It’s for sale again. Let me know if you want it.
Oh, he kinda had krumkake because I made him heart-shaped half-waffles with the rest of the batter, with whipped cream and blueberries, and he said three times that it was DELICIOUS!!!
The krumkake recipe called for cardamom. I’ve never even heard of it, and had to look up what to use instead. The internet says to substitute cinnamon and nutmeg, or allspice and cloves. Christmas, basically. Make it smell like Christmas, with whipped cream.
I saw the darling whittling something. He was turning a piece of dowel into a beautiful replacement handle! He oiled it up and, “Now I just have to find the perfect screw!”
Notice the website change?
Messing around again. Tried to adjust the margins on twentytwentyfive mobile view, and ended up mired in similar frustration level as a two-halved krumkake iron. Do I really have to sit in front of this computer when it’s ninety and things aren’t working? I put Kadence back, which is the perfect FOOL proof theme. Fools can make it look personalized, but can’t fiddle with the settings until they make their websites into a pile of mess, as I had done to mine. So here we go again, with a fabbdalous background and not even a header. That’s okay.
Hey, I might have solved the posting thing! And I can break out of my posting doldrum. All the regular chitchat can go here, and the family stuff on MeWe. I had to wrestle with MeWe for a bit (in my overparticular, stubborn noggin) but I’m past it and emerged into the sun on the other side, with a sense of peace (ish) about using it. It’s funded by the users, not the enemy; it’s nothing the same level of objectionable / controlled / controlling as Facebook and simply is not over my boundaries, so, say thanks, Weinstein / Berners-Lee, and here we go.
More nonsense to come!
Last time I walked down to that Little Free Library, I had a pile to donate and I wasn’t intending to pick anything up. But then there was this. “The Wisdom of the West” compiled by Criswell Freeman. I opened it and found several pertinent sayings that I ought to try to remember. I walked away, then walked back and picked up the book.
This is the heart of the matter. I’ve dreamed my whole life of a place where I could feel like I belong there. I belong with the darling of course and would live with him under a bridge if necessary; but it would also be peachy to have a home assigned on earth. This is where Janel goes. When we are done playing with Janel, we put her back here.
We finally have a chance to own our own place without obligation. That’s the big dream and doesn’t have to include the creature comforts, hehe, it’s all about surviving that first winter, and if you’re lucky, write a book about it later. Now I get to do that, too.
This is a concept that might help me at the new place when I begin to get cold. In fact, I think it already has. We were out there camping for two weeks when it was 24 degrees. I sometimes wished I could go– well, not home, this is home!
Not back. Anything but that.
After only a couple weeks, I did begin to wish I could go inside. We’ll have an “inside” soon enough. In the meantime, ONWARD.
We have been marveling and giggling over the concept of heading east to get to the West.
I spent my early years deep in the heart of the old West, far south of here in gold country, where except for the cars and telephones it was still 1849. That place was excellent in all ways except that it was, unfortunately, politically situated in Cali (cough) Forn (cough) – sorry, I can’t say it. If the State of Jefferson ever became reality, I’d move back there instantly, but for now, no.
Anyhoo the West was alive there and I loved it. But right now we’re heading eastwards inside our good old birthplace WA, to get back to something a bit more West.
Right. There are so many limitations, but we have “a lot” and we can do “all kinds of things” and it is deeply satisfying to do as much as possible with what we have, rather than to just stay stuck. Knowing you’re doing everything you can do is all that’s necessary to be able to sleep at night.
Exactly. I dunno about the customs, I’ve never been good at that. But I’m def making do with the things that I have. Funny, but I think I’ve been preparing for this my whole life. I’ve scoffed at spoiled American women, and yet when it came time to leave “civilization”, it turned out I’d been comfortable there so long, I had started to get a bit dependent. Well, I’ve scoffed too much to deserve any sympathy. Toughen up.
Can’t we live without hot running water? Can’t we wake up cold and make a fire like our ancestors did, who craved freedom? Yes! If that’s the price of freedom, then absolutely yes, and that’s a cheap price.
Can’t we do without the internet? ::cries::
I’ve collected candles all my life. Whenever I saw someone’s used wedding tapers on the giveaway table, I picked them up. Now I finally get to need them. And the wool blankets, I’m gonna need those, and warm quilted clothing, for real. I have a self-constructed hand crank sewing machine for exactly this exigency! In case there’s no more electricity. There’s no more electricity, so yay.
I was one of many who was a bit crestfallen when Y2K didn’t happen. I was hoping for TEOTWAWKI while I was still young. And now, here it is! Because I brought it on myself.
It’s true. I can feel it coming. A bit of actual discomfort might just do wonders for my seething. There’s no time to be nuts when you need to carry some water to wash dishes and get the firewood in before dark.
That means I’m already a winner.
Just looked up EMFs to see what they’re admitting nowadays, and the first results are some lovely double negatives.
World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-electromagnetic-fields
Explains, “Tiny electrical currents exist in the human body due to the chemical reactions that occur as part of the normal bodily functions… Most biochemical reactions from digestion to brain activities go along with the rearrangement of charged particles. Even the heart is electrically active… Low-frequency electric fields influence the human body just as they influence any other material made up of charged particles. When electric fields act on conductive materials, they influence the distribution of electric charges at their surface. They cause current to flow through the body to the ground.”
Oh yes, that’s why I like to go out and stand barefoot in the wet sand, and let the big Earth absorb my bitchiness and realign my attitude with sparkly rainbows. It works!
It works, even in the cold. Five minutes to more cold, less bitchy. Ahhhh.
To continue:
“Low-frequency magnetic fields induce circulating currents within the human body. The strength of these currents depends on the intensity of the outside magnetic field. If sufficiently large, these currents could cause stimulation of nerves and muscles or affect other biological processes. Both electric and magnetic fields induce voltages and currents in the body but even directly beneath a high voltage transmission line, the induced currents are very small compared to thresholds for producing shock and other electrical effects.”
Oh THAT’S reassuring. You’re not going to go GGZZZZZZZT like sticking your finger in a light socket. It’s not that bad.
But don’t worry, they are not definitely not harmful!
“…the WHO concluded that current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low level electromagnetic fields. However, some gaps in knowledge about biological effects exist and need further research… Some members of the public have attributed a diffuse collection of symptoms to low levels of exposure to electromagnetic fields at home… headaches, anxiety… nausea, fatigue… some of these health problems may be caused by noise or other factors in the environment, or by anxiety related to the presence of new technologies.”
HA
“The only thing you have to fear is fear itself”?
Next, the gubmint says — and National Institutes of Health say they’re really the gubmint:
That EMFs don’t definitely not hurt you. This is all making me feel so much better.
Now, in the age of cellular telephones, wireless routers, and the Internet of things, all of which use EMF, concerns persist about possible connections between EMF and adverse health effects. NIEHS acknowledges additional research is needed and recommends continued education on practical ways to reduce exposures to EMFs.
From https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/emf/index.cfm
Okay, then. How to reduce exposure.
Step 1: Run for the hills.
Or as the guy’s car in front of me said,
On our last trip to our cold new home, Darling heard a thing on the paranoia radio saying that EMFs may influence your mood even more than your gut health does.
He wonders if that’s true.
I asked him, “Am I less crazy when I’m out here?”
–> Y E S <–
Kinda irritated with X again.
Here’s what I was gonna post. (I’ll put the bitching after.)
I was gonna say something along the lines:
“VASAviation, first best source for airplane oops news! The airline hasn’t released the gender of the pilots yet but it’s not all female, like the silly videos going around that Jeff’s been watching claim. You can hear the cockpit chaos and the yelling is male. I mean, wouldn’t it be great if sober, rested, well paid, grown up white men who had been hired for their test scores had never managed to oops an airplane?”
But X.com told me “you have reached your daily limit for this action. Add your phone number to remove the limit” when I hadn’t even (successfully) posted anything (it was 6:15 am when I started this process).
And why do they need my phone number?
I’ve had a NO going on about that since always. See post from 2012 when White Mountain Puzzles wouldn’t mail the (physical, tangible) jigsaw puzzle I had ordered unless I gave them a phone number.
All of my enemies already have my phone number, I just don’t like the cheek of these small time entities who think disclosure should be default.
Oh yeah, back when I was wondering why the Trumpster doesn’t have his own site? Then he made one. I tried to join it, just out of idle curiosity. Nope, not without a phone number and YOUR FREE GOOGLE VOICE NUMBER ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH IT HAS TO BE YOUR REAL ONE.
Not that curious.
My darling gets up and vaguely remembers me playing him cockpit recordings at 5am. He says, “So, you came across some phony recording with voice actors, claiming that wasn’t a planeful of girls?”
Right. This must be the real one XD
[Edit end of Mar 2025 – to add the funniest thing I ever saw in my LIFE, in perfect whiteguy-ese!
<– end of edit]
I decided to switch over and be an X fangirl when I heard about Elon Musk refusing to censor reality! And posted away, happily, for a while, but now they want my phone number, so I’m out on the sidewalk. Again.
Here’s what I would have shared on X today.
Cried. I WEPT over that. So much sadness. The glory of an era being led away to her grave, and still beautiful.
When you’re done crying, read the top comments and get ready to bawl some more as the old mariners put the sadness into poetry.
Look at that beautiful ship compared with one of the silly new ones in the background, and she was double the speed, too.
Edit: I stand corrected and beg your pardon. The purpose of a cruise ship is not to get from point A to point B, so the speed doesn’t matter. The cruise ship is itself part of the destination, so it’s okay if it goes at the speed of the floating apartment complex it resembles.
United States could cross the ocean in four days. Compare to QM2 (now our last ocean liner) that does it in seven, but again, probably okay since it’s for people for whom time is not the biggest factor. Is your first thought that money might be? But QM2 isn’t more expensive than a flight! –as long as you buddy up, since it’s ppdo.
I think I shared this at one point. It’s 15 seconds of intense life lesson to not do things you’re not supposed to do.
And a funny. Perfect white people entertainment, there. Watch to the end.
Cuz I need a featured image for my index page feng shui. Boy is that image from old times to have Google Plus on it. I miss Google Plus. I’ve been floundering around ever since that went byebye.