Jonny Come Lately

My darling godson Jonny came to visit us today. He's moving back to New York City from Austin, TX, where he felt like he never quite fit in, and wanted to assure us that we'll be a major part of his NYC experience, at least until we move. Speaking of which, he's vital and strong (he does rock climbing and lifts weights) and was able to help Robin take down our printer and AC boxes almost single-handedly! Not only that, thanks to him all the boxes from the loft that aren't filled with receipts waiting to be shredded are now situated where the old AC/printer boxes used to be, freeing up space for us to steam our kurtas for this coming weekend and retrieve our suitcases for the weekend as well as the UK trip. Plus, he will help us rehome all our tech and appliances in the next few years as we get ready to downsize all the things that run on US outlets. Best of all, we get to cat-sit his lovely orange tabby Mango when he travels, satisfying my urge to have a kitty that won't completely be fulfilled until we've emigrated. We had a lovely visit with my uncle (his grandfather) then a nice lunch locally before he took off for more parts unknown. A bit of a whirlwind, exhausting day, especially being out in non-air conditioned areas for a longer period of time than I'm used to in muggy weather. And I'm still not walking properly despite having changed back to the sneakers I was wearing before my most recent pair, so that was pretty tiring as well. But so, so worth it!

Connectivity

Well, I thought my work-related tech issues were behind me, but this morning a firmwide glitch stopped all external emails from arriving, so I had to go onto my email at the client site and stay there for awhile until things got fixed. Not good for a firm where customer connection is key. Thank goodness so many people were still on PTO. My brain is half-there too. Tomorrow I get my hair cut, Sunday I take the car for inspection, just ticking off the things to do before the big September travel (first to Philly for the wedding reception then to Merrie Olde), and expecting fate to throw a spanner in those works as it sometimes does.

OMG Shoes

Now that my tech issues at work are temporarily behind me, I can again concentrate on my personal health and such. To that end, I wore my new sneakers to work. I still have problems with the fourth toe on each foot, particularly the left one, but I'm guessing that's just a breaking-in thing. I love these sneakers, they only cost $50 and they have very wide toe boxes so things should settle by the time we're in England. I just hope the trains are running OK by the time we arrive, the tracks near where we'll be just buckled and three train cars overturned (fortunately no deaths) so it'll be awhile in repairs. I don't mind buses though!

Silly Site o' the Day

I'd rather not talk about my homeward commute on a crowded subway today, which exacerbated my various Old Person aches and pains to an uncomfortable extent, so I'm thinking about Merrie Olde since it's just about a month before our holiday there. I'm hoping to see some of the castles and such listed on this map (via BoingBoing), but we'll see how well I can walk.

Through to the Semis!

I can't believe I'm undergoing World Cup withdrawal, but I really got into it this year. I mean, I'm not as obsessive as our mayor, but once you get to the quarter finals (even the Gang of 8) there have been some enjoyable games. And I didn't expect England to beat Norway, so the fact that they did made it even more fun for this binational household. Certainly more fun than the crispy rice hot dog we had at Kura. Folks, please stay away from that, if you value your palates and stomachs. Other than that, the sushi was lovely, the food shopping reasonable, and my hallux behaved. Next on the weekend agenda, catching up on personal finances (as opposed to inherited ones) and steaming some tops to wear to work because I'm definitely not going to want to do that with the rising temps.

Put It in The Books

Well, now we've done it. We're headed to England for reals in September. I expected the sticker shock from the airfare, but was not prepared for same from the car service. Robin did a bit of searching and other services cost more or less the same, given fuel prices and tolls and such, so I'm leaving things the way they are. The hotel had a few hidden costs as well, but we really haven't had a proper vacay (certainly not to England) since before COVID, and after all what have I saved up for, besides retirement? If I think of the airfare as less than a month's rent it somehow makes me feel better. But what really relieves the stress is knowing it's all been done, and we can now start planning!

Flights of Fancy

We're finally getting ready to take a for-really vacation to England, our first in many years. Today we talked through various permutations in terms of flight classes and timing, and it appears it'll be at least a few thousand dollars but, hey, what else am I saving up for? We have a lot of fact-finding to do in terms of looking for a retirement bungalow, and I've made tentative plans to meet up with folks I've met through my job; I really want to see my firm's Canary Wharf office! It's all too exhausting to do right away, so I've put things off until at least tomorrow if not Monday, but it's a good start.

World Cupery

Today my firm sponsored a watch party in our dining lounge for the opening game of the World Cup. I wound up only making it for the second half due to a meeting, but I'm pleased to say that, by the time I got up to that room, I had very little work on which I needed to catch up. Almost every quarterly meeting for all three of "my" big clients are now done, important as two of those clients have multi-week inspections coming up and I now need to concentrate on that. I really need some time off, and I'll be getting some: next week I have some medical stuff to take care of, plus Friday is Juneteenth and a firm holiday; the last week of June/first week of July is our annual Summer Shutdown (no plans other than getting my orthotics reupholstered since I won't be going anywhere else); then in September we're hoping to go back to Merrie Olde to begin scouting possible retirement areas. In the meantime, we have to deal with World Cup Madness in the NY/NJ area as the MetLife Stadium is home to a lot of the games. Oh, and I did have fun watching the footie, except folks were encouraged to wear team kits and I was the only one who brought one (England of course). Oh, and also, they cut away to ads while the game was still going on! Bet they won't do that with the Oo-Ess-Ey game tomorrow...

Silly Site o' the Day

We're still mulling over whether to visit Merrie Olde this coming autumn (have lots of PTO time I need to use up), and here's one reason although they probably won't be anywhere near where we want to go: the K6 Project (via BoingBoing) which maps still-extant telephone boxes.

I Got Circadian Rhythm

My timing seemed to be off today. I've been awake since around 4:30, but can't seem to get up the energy to do very much other than work-from-home. Thank goodness I didn't have to schlep into Manhattan today, my aching legs and feet and IT band and whatever would not have liked that very much. This evening we watched a fascinating documentary about Life On Earth, a late '70s nature program by Sir David Attenborough, who turns 100 years old on Friday. Robin remembers seeing the show on BBC in the '70s, I don't think it ever made it over here. Then we watched a program made a couple years ago about dark matter, which still makes my head hurt, but the main thing was how much our understanding of the cosmos has changed since I was in high school. Say, did you know that Jupiter has way more than 12 moons?

Parts Unknown

I finally got the last piece of the puzzle to finish up one of my partners' marathon trip to Asia and Europe. Another partner had me look up flights to Heathrow and hotels by our Canary Wharf office, leading to a pang or two that Robin and I won't be visiting England for the next few years, considering the way the TSA and ICE have been disappearing non-citizens on the flimsiest of pretexts (or none). I'm trying very hard to busy myself so I don't think about the fall of the American empire, and it looks like I may be taking on new assignments at work so that should keep me occupied. In the meantime, I'm living vicariously through my Facebook friends' travelogues.

Silly Site o' the Day

Again, too frazzled and busy and in pain (really just my toe, but that affects the rest of me) to do more than a silly site, but I think SwearSky is appropriate as well (once again via BoingBoing). I mean, swear words in a British accent tied to BlueSky? Sign me up!

Silly Site o' the Day

Another nice day taking it easy, on the exercise bike and watching Olympic stuff, as I gear up for three consecutive Manhattan days this week with no Wednesday PTO. Many of my friends are either at Galaxy Con or Shore Leave or San Diego Comic Con, but I'm well past FOMO, particularly given how many are once again contracting COVID. Except I still want to make it to England again, if only for this Sunday roast in a burrito:

Via BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

A bit of a weird day at work, as more restructuring was announced that will, alas, result in more people being let go. This seems to be the way of things in the US nowadays. I'm just grateful I'm riding it out, but I do have a history of being the "last one standing" in all the jobs I've had during my career. The good news is that the COVID situation is getting better around here, so I've made plans to start going back into the office at least a couple of days a week starting next month. And maybe we can even make for-really vacation plans soon. I'd like to see the places that this mediocre Englishman sees:

Via BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

The start of another short work week for me, as we're visiting Mom on Friday to take her to a medical appointment, and I was kept fairly busy so I didn't get to watch the Liverpool derby until after it ended. Speaking of which, here's Brett Goldstein with some helpful tips:

Via Laughing Squid. Can't wait for the next season of Ted Lasso to start in about a month!

Silly Site o' the Day

The wrist is still aching but I'm faithfully doing my morning physical therapy exercises, and wearing the thumb brace overnight, so I've been able to relax it for most of the day today, to celebrate Robin's and my 24th anniversary. Can I just again say how lucky I am to have found Robin? He made us a splendid English breakfast this morning. For dinner I've just finished our traditional tasty sushi, and I think I'm more or less sush'ed out for the moment, so for his birthday on Tuesday we'll probably get something else. Otherwise I'm still deep in the throes of this cold (self-tested negative for COVID for about the fifth time this week so goodness knows what it is I have), so it was another enforced-leisure day. I had wanted to compose our Riggs Residence Roundup but it's really hard to concentrate when I'm this run down, and know I have to log onto work tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll take it easy (with two partners being out of town) and take some free LinkedIn Learning courses. I really appreciate the ones that teach me new things, like about cognitive bias. My supplemental reading includes this handy codex.

Silly Site o' the Day

My body paid a bit for yesterday's walk, but no regrets. I had the knee brace on and Voltaren'ed until early afternoon, and now the left arch is aching. I suspect I need both new sneakers and new arch support slippers. The latter have been ordered, that's only $20, but the New Balance 990's are a bit harder to locate for under $200 (including tax). If my knees and feet get worse I may just have to bite that bullet, but we'll see. In the meantime it's been wall-to-wall QEII and KCIII coverage on the Beeb, as expected, and the pomp and/or circumstance still fascinate me. We're entering the new  Carolean age! Carolean is now one of my favorite words. We've come a long way since the "Up, Chuck and Di!" days. Tomorrow's ceremonies look to be more of the same. Speaking of old stuff, enjoy this collection of bizarre-looking cats in medieval paintings from BoingBoing.

Silly Site o' the Day

It was an exceedingly strange day today, not just due to the rather expected death of Queen Elizabeth II. One of the many Yonkers neighbors whose back yards directly face our house (I count at least eight) decided to hire workers to cut down two trees, which noise really drove me from my home office when I didn't absolutely need to be in the room to work. The racket went on from around 9 AM to 3 PM, during which we took a lunch break to "walk some errands" to and from a couple stores in the neighborhood, something we haven't done together in far too long. I braced both knees and my left foot, and used the cane, and now my left arm muscle below the deltoid is killing me, but at least I'm okay from the waist down! If it's not one thing it's another. I'm also a bit down because the person to whom I report for my longest-standing work project gave a presentation on the app we use today and didn't even mention me. We've only worked together going on nine years, so yeah. In other more wholesome news:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

Hoorah, so much done today! Finally got to H Mart and found eel sauce to replace the bottle I ruined, and thanks to Robin now I know exactly where to find it from now on. Got all the other usual Asian goodies as well, of course. Alas, no British cuisine:

Then onto the pharmacy to pick up some medication, then our regular grocery shopping, and home to watch Liverpool draw, find goodies like my safe driving course certificate (which I cannot figure out how to upload to my car insurance's website), the mail order med I'd been expecting so I can fill my pill box for the next week, and engage in a rapid email exchange with The Firesign Theatre's Phil Proctor, who's in Manhattan and meeting me for lunch tomorrow. Masks on for most of this stuff, no more Flonase so I think the weirdness is finally out of my system, all appropriate digits crossed!

Silly Site o' the Day

Way too cold to go out today, or even to wake up properly, although of course work kept me quite alert from 8 to 5:30 or so. Just finished watching Mary Poppins Returns, in which Lin-Manuel Miranda (who seems to Do No Wrong, we caught up on season 2 of His Dark Materials yesterday wherein he had a heartbreaking death scene) did a pretty passable Cockney accent. Although as an American I'm still flummoxed at times by British things that are still weird as hell...