Gutted the smoke alarm. Will deal later. Busy day outdoors. It's cooler but not cool enough for me! Dinner was crab cakes at a new local diner, and they are not sitting well. Bed early, I think.

This is the only thing I ever think about when beeping smoke alarms come up:

[link]

Ha! Dana, that's exactly what I thought of, too!

When I was a kid and my sister went off to college I got to move into her room. One year she stashed some things from her apartment there and went off to do summer stuff with friends. And I started to hear a faint beeping at night. I told my parents, and they said they didn't hear anything. I was a difficult 12 year old, and there was more than a wiff of "another unreasonable fuss from the kid" in the air. A couple a weeks later my sister came home and, while rooting around for some stuff, came across the smoke alarm out parents had bought for her previous apartment. Its battery was low and it's warning beep was going.

I got my hair cut today, and visited Dad, and got rid of my old dog crate (she hated it and it was really heavy). And now I have an apricot-almond tart in the oven and I'm going to dinner with a friend, yay.

And now I have an apricot-almond tart in the oven and I'm going to dinner with a friend, yay.

This sounds delicious, I must say.

I can't figure out what I want to do this evening. If I should call up (or, well, text) some friends, or what. I'm not feeling very motivated, but I suspect if someone else was like "let's do this thing! it'll be awesome!" I'd be all "OK!"

My thumbs ache inexplicably. May be part of the recovery process from the RSI from July 4 railorama, may be warning I got my mom's arthritis (rheumatoid, iirc.) Which would be AWESOME, thank you 39. Been a fantastic first two weeks of it.

Consuela, glad things seem to be turning around in increments.

I no longer give smoke alarms more than one chance. Battery replacement doesn't work? Fucker is replaced. You can get ones for $10 that come with an led emergency light now!

I am a giant skipper who skips. I am home from a month of travel/professional development and am SO HAPPY. Except for the loud ranchero music coming directly into the bedroom from the party next door when I'm trying to nap. That's not my favorite.

What percentage of the Eurorpean population died in during the Plague? Way more than 10%. Just looked it up and the first numbers coughed up by Prof Google was 30-60%. 2% should be easy to absorb.

Ruby Gloom! I bought Franny a Ruby Gloom book many many years ago but she failed to see her charms. I'm so happy to hear Mathilda likes her.

Kat, that fig jam sounds amazing.

I am burning out so hard these days I can just barely manage to get through a day. Writing is suffering, which makes me a bit sad.