Easy Listening

Delivered this afternoon was a package of Thai CDs and a 3-DVD set. I'm listening to the first CD, called herspective, 10 tracks by 5 different female vocalists. Also in the pack was herspective 2, Love is Millions, and a 2-CD acoustic (?) concert set called  Sit Play Special Hits. The DVD set is an epic piece called We Were Born During The Reign of Rama 9 which is a collection of short interviews with dozens of people from all walks of life, reflecting on the beloved recently deceased King. Collector's item, or will be if I live long enough.

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Another weird night of oddly broken sleep. Up before the alarms, waited only to turn them off. On the road 5 minutes early.

Email from TurboTax that my state and federal e-filings have been accepted.

Work started with one of the techs next door asking to see a crash I'd reported, and then me filing three bugs. Lots of support from Program Manager.

Lunch was Safeway pot roast small meal. There was a huge pile of empty pizza boxes, and a sign saying they had been for a high school tour group. They left some Krispy Kreme donuts for general consumption. So I generally consumed one of the chocolate topped custard filled ones. Most KK fare is just sugared air, which I don't eat, but the filled ones are almost real donuts.

Two big high school groups were ushered out the side door, nothing to see there. Way more boys than girls, and all the girls were Asian.

Break time caterers were converting the break room into a breakfast buffet - they said they were hosting a big name company next week. I will probably have to find somewhere else to snag a banana Monday.

Started a weekend-long test at 5, on the road home at 5:40, very little traffic comparatively. Almost took the freeway. Did make the right-hand turn at the Intersection From Hell which is usually a 3-light wait.

My Netflix testing at work had me binge watching a show called The Good Witch and even though I don't particularly like some of the characters, it grew on me enough to continue watching at home. The writers seem to have a thing for manipulative, phony women. They have also demoted the title role from witch to medicine woman who always knows who is about to walk through the door. I think what's hooked me is they have several possible couples who are taking their sweet time getting together with the "right" partner, but you get the impression that everyone gets hooked up eventually.

Dinner was ha gow and steamed roasted duck pieces. And some cheap cavier on ritz crackers and some garlic stuffed olives I had marinated for a few days in olive oil, thyme, oregano and a tiny bit of red pepper flakes.

Replanted what had been a huge butterwort into a much smaller pot, since it has shrunk dramatically. Put a couple which have been getting bigger into the big pot. Moved the older Thai lime tree from the piano room where it was losing leaves in droves, to the kitchen, near the bay windows. Much better light there.

And I just polished off an egg cream.

Ordered a second compost bin. Bee's friend plants and rose cuttings need a place to live, and one bin costs the same as a 1-month green trash bin rental, which has to be rented for 3 months after a 2-week wait.

Plans for tomorrow:
ATM, small deposit, large withdrawal
Thin Mints
Manicure
Safeway and maybe Asian market shopping
Cut back the roses a lot

Hyde Park Corner

aka politics.

Anyone who has ever tried to obtain a White House press pass knows they are harder to get than a Superbowl ring. They are allocated at the discretion of the press secretary, and they are a huge privilege, not a right.

The big stink about CNN not being allowed into the latest press conference is idiotic. Ever since White House press conferences were invented, preference has been given to reporters who are supportive of the administration, or, at the very least, fair.

Lately, too many "mainstream" "journalists" arrive with an agenda. They have no more right to a White House press pass than you do.

It is not a freedom of the press issue. That's a constitutional prohibition against Congress passing laws restricting the press. The President doesn't pass laws. The President is not Congress.