TJ's cardamom twists:

Ken will be coming to us for Thanksgiving and Christmas; some of Ken's friends might be tagging along depending on how their assessment of the state of family relations works out. At some point during the day we'll head to the beach and look for orcas, then wander over to my goddaughter's for board games, spiked hot chocolate and small humans using the adults as climbing structures. All of you are invited.

I wish! Not because of conflict(although brother does sometimes copy Dad's know-it-all tone...don't love that.) But it's just boring...we eat together all the time. Hard to dress it up, you know?

with the compost that comes of it dedicated to the gardens of our kids and niblings

That's a lovely outcome of something I have to imagine was not easy.

All of you are invited.

Sweet!

I took a day-trip to Philadelphia today, which turned out to be a really smart move, since the air quality in NYC was garbage from wildfires. I shot 3 rolls of film, and did 30K steps.

Oh hey! Alec Baldwin is sitting across the aisle from me in Amtrak business class. I’m betting that means he’s going to be on SNL tonight.

awesome! The outing, the steps, and the Baldwin sighting.

That said, I don't know if I am ready for SNL.

Another day and I’m still pissed off and ragey.

I got a futon off but nothing today, so my basement is one step closer to being a real sleep option.

How is Mac's recovery going, msbelle?

The Ft. Lauderdale marathon was/is this morning and I feel bad for not having the ambition to dress and at least go on my balcony to cheer them on. Last year I cheered them from the street. Even sadder to report that I don't see any others streetside cheering them. Hopefully there are more further down the route on the beachfront. I hear the cheers from the people working the race at least. They deserved better from me. I feel guilty.

I did manage to watch the news yesterday morning and am this morning. Mostly because I really like The Weekend show on MSNBC. I know I am not up to any of the other ones yet. I'm watching again this morning because their tone yesterday was appropriate, IMO.

Went and got my nails done yesterday and not a work of politics was spoken by anyone.

Skinner is still having major digestive issues, but after a couple days he gobbles down my 'chicken soup' and even ate a cheese stick with his pills in it. So better.

This concludes my morning update.

I can't even bring myself to watch SNL clips. I might be able to watch Jon Stewart talking with Heather Cox Richardson later. In the meantime I've watched videos about conjoined twins, and a long explainer about how the Milwaukee Protocol for rabies was invented and why it's still controversial.*

*(It's theorized that the people who do recover through it may have some genetic factor that predisposes them to be more resistant. But not enough cases to be sure yet. And the medical support for the protocol is hella expensive.)

I’m in MI now, on a whirlwind trip to get a new apartment for my upcoming move. If everything goes as planned, I’ll be moving in 2 weeks. My formerly conservative MI family has been going WTF at the Republicans for 10 years now, and the orange menace made them completely disavow the Republicans. Hence my willingness to move. I want to be near family if things go to crap.