Silly Site o' the Day

As we'd surmised, we were both pretty wiped today from all the walking we did at the zoo yesterday. Robin had a chance to sleep and I paced myself well enough with a hefty workload that I was able to just about catch up by the time I logged off. Did I mention that the Bronx Zoo no longer gives out maps as everything is online and interactive now? Here's another interactive map, the Time Map. Yes, wibbly wobbly timey-wimey! Only this one covers Earth history. Via BoingBoing.

Someone Told Me It's All Happening

White Rabbits, none of which were on display at the Bronx Zoo today. But we went anyway, and had a grand old time as part of KPMG's Family Day event, brought back for the first time since the pandemic. We didn't really have a group gathering place, it was everyone for themselves, so as we'd arrived early to secure a good parking spot (after all, the place is like a 20-minute drive from us) we decided to hightail it out of there around 1:30 PM, exhausted but happy. I know for sure I'm going to ache tomorrow, but at least I get to work from home! Loads of pictures on Facebook, as Blogger limits that sort of thing.

Silly Site o' the Day

And it's goodbye to May, goodbye to another Doctor (Who), and hello to slightly warmer weather, one hopes! It's also graduation season, so best pay attention to this speech:

 Via Laughing Squid.

Fri-Yay

Friday afternoons in the summer are always nice, even when the weather's iffy. Today was no exception. Got everything done and dusted by 3 PM so was able to relax a bit. In fact, I think I'll go relax some more.

Busy and Dizzy

This new client site assignment is taking up way too much of my brainpower, and playing havoc with my new corporate cell phone since I had the client site authenticators put on there as well. Fortunately I only use a couple apps on the phone, and they still work. Amazingly, I got through all the stuff I needed to do before the stuff I need to do tomorrow, which makes sense to me so never mind. Basically I have to prepare a dozen expense reports twice a month, and tomorrow's the deadline so today I played catch-up prior to submitting everything. Got all the attachments and approvals and answers so I'm pretty happy. But the client site stuff - whew! It just doesn't end, it's like a second job. I'm trying not to think about it as I'm home and relaxing now, but I fear it'll rear its ugly head once more tomorrow when I log on (at least I'm working from home!). In the meantime, I'm off to catalog and read the new comics that arrived today, still saddened that I'm never going to see a new one from Peter...

Adventure Mouse

So yes, we share this house with various unwanted critters, and our landlord has never truly fumigated, so we set humane traps and such. Adventure Mouse joined us during the weekend when I was making ratatouille, actually came out a few times to watch the cooking before scampering away, so Robin ordered a few more traps and baited them with Weetabix, which apparently the semi-adorable rodents like. AM was caught and released at the end of our driveway today, and we know they have a companion so we're hoping it's only a matter of time before AM's mate is c&r'ed as well. Life in the big city!

Back to the Grindstone

The day didn't start off particularly well, as a women got on the not-really-full bus, asked to sit next to me, and stayed there until we both exited at the same stop a little over an hour later. My IT band has felt weak all day as a result, and I'm glad I'm working from home tomorrow. I informed all my folks that I'd be taking vacation days every Wednesday this summer, then looked at my calendar and realized I'll have to log on at least a little bit next Wednesday so that means schlepping my laptop back and forth one day more than I'd planned. But really, first world problems. And I do love Manhattan, even as I don't always care for the commute itself. We went through some fun parts of Harlem today, where people just wander into and across the street with traffic (like a BUS) coming right at them; if you look at old footage you'll note they've been doing this since before there were cars (look up the origin of the Brooklyn Dodgers name). I'm in a better mood now that the weather is warmer, I just want a bit more time off to enjoy it.

Futility

Yet another day glorifying those who make war. How many does this make? I have sympathy for their circumstances, whether conscripted against their will by a draft or economic hardship, but I have no great love for the military. And I say this as the ex-wife of a sailor and daughter-in-law of another sailor. The more we pay tribute to the idea that war is always necessary (it's not) and dying is sacrifice (it's not), the more we will perpetuate this mentality. But I'm now living in a country that's so far up its own jingoism it can't even remember when American flags weren't festooned everywhere on non-holidays, when God Bless 'Murica wasn't forcibly inserted into the seventh inning stretch, when people could discuss the concept of a peace dividend, diplomacy, using our might to do some good in the world instead of killing. I choose to remember, on this day and Remembrance Day, all those who succumbed to the futility of war through bad luck and no fault of their own.

Peter

I first met Peter David when he'd just become a writer at Marvel. He was the first comic pro I really got to know, and we'd been friends for around 40 years. Alas, a series of illnesses has caused him to shuffle off this mortal coil, and I'd like to think he's with his buddy Harlan Ellison and my buddy Leah Adezio having a snark-off in the hereafter. So many memories have been flooding in. The way he always seemed to travel in a cocoon of noise, so that you could tell when he was coming and going like a Doppler effect. His amazement at my flip phone that reminded him of a Star Trek communicator. The births of his two youngest daughters, Ariel (now a mom of two) and Caroline, and Ariel's bat mitzvah. All the conventions where we had the privilege of sitting next to him and his amazing partner Kathleen, puppeteer extraordinaire. How thrilled I was to give him at least a couple finished pages of every comic he wrote that Robin inked. How far he would go for a really bad pun, and not always in the best taste. His quick wit and smile. His pride in his four daughters. His obvious love for Kath. The way he sneaked my name into a Star Trek novel he wrote. All the lovely folks I met because of him. And his writing, sometimes groan-inducing but always fun and clever. I'll miss the contributions he could have made if only, if only... RIP Peter.

A Leg to Stand On

I was woken up in the wee smalls by pretty bad neuropathy - well, pain actually - in both feet and calves, so there's that. May have been the 20 minutes I did on the bike coupled with the lower temps. Fortunately the pain had dissipated by the time we went out shopping, but I decided to skip our local gourmet place in favor of only shopping the usual supermarket. We got a whole bunch of stuff for tomorrow, including eggplant and zucchini and squash on sale so I'm making ratatouille - except I forgot tomatoes, so that's a good excuse to walk to the local farmers market tomorrow, presuming no more leg discomfort. I finally made a salad with all the veg I had sitting around from last week, so when the weather warms I can tuck into that, and of course we got the usual accoutrements for Memorial Day. Now if the weather would just warm a tick...