The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[Rustyoznail]

Trust me, clones never work out well.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Well, my rewrite went a lot easier than I thought it would and actually made the story better. I'm glad I caught that discrepancy before it was published.

I got Wordle correct on the first try once. If you count having the right letters but in the wrong order, that becomes three times. Then I stopped guessing and started using the same words to start the game ...

There's a fresh pot of coffee going and the teapot is boiling. Help yourself to the goodies on the counter -- I got ambitious yesterday and made some more brownies and some peanut butter fudge.

I got back to my new story after the rewrite and finished a second vignette. Three more to go before I tie them all together into a meta story ...

 

[NotWise]

The NYT hard Sudoku took me twenty three minutes this morning. It started slowly then finished quickly.

I'll add blueberry blondies to the counter and snitch one before I go.

 

[GrantBricksly]

Trust me, clones never work out well.

Fair enough....lol

 

[NotWise]

I finished supports for a sun shade over the tomatoes. The supports are each a vertical 2"x4"x8' with a 2"x4"x4' cross member at the top that the shades connect to. The supports fit into a sleeve that's sunk fifteen inches into the ground at each end of a 4'x8' raised bed so they're removable and can be stored out of the weather in the winter and relocated to a different bed next year.

I may drill a hole through the vertical support and into the frame of the raised bed so I can put in a rod to keep the support from rocking back and forth.

Now I need to make and hang the shade.

 

[MrPixel]

Speaking of sun shade... I bought a big tarp last night to cover the pile of dirt the excavation contractor left on the front lawn Saturday to level-out a low spot in the back yard. The intent was to work on it that day, but apparently something interfered. It is supposed to start raining in earnest tomorrow, and conventional wisdom told me that the pile of dirt was going to become a pile of mud he couldn't deal with. Lo and behold, we come back from lunch this afternoon to find one of his minions having moved the entire load to where it belonged, and he is now power-raking the entire area.

It is so wonderful to have friends in the biz who are conscientious about such things. I was going to let it go knowing how busy a guy he is, but was astounded and gratified that it's being handled before things went south.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I finished supports for a sun shade over the tomatoes. The supports are each a vertical 2"x4"x8' with a 2"x4"x4' cross member at the top that the shades connect to. The supports fit into a sleeve that's sunk fifteen inches into the ground at each end of a 4'x8' raised bed so they're removable and can be stored out of the weather in the winter and relocated to a different bed next year.

I may drill a hole through the vertical support and into the frame of the raised bed so I can put in a rod to keep the support from rocking back and forth.

Now I need to make and hang the shade.

I need to make something similar for our stamp sized back deck. The pup loves sitting on it even if its raining, and wanders in all wet. I'm sure it's deliberate, because he loves being towel dried.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I am loving the warm weather right now. I may not in another week or so.

I have a fresh pot of coffee going and the teapot is whistling. There are donuts on the counter and the cappuccino machine is glaring at me.

I'll be over in the corner working on my story, researching about HMMWVs ...

 

[MillieDynamite]

First break of the day. How's life treating y'all?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

First break of the day. How's life treating y'all?

Got a new washing machine, so catching up on the backlog of laundry. Leftover roast dinner to look forward to this evening.

 

[old_prof]

At doc for annual then back to writing. I have decided to ignore son’s partner. If she realizes what I am writing and is offended, so be it.

 

[NotWise]

The NYT hard Sudoku took 34 minutes this morning.

The urban area has a flash flood watch for this afternoon. We've had a little rain each of the last three days and the weather service thinks rainfall today could be 2-4 times what we've had recently. For most of y'all it wouldn't be a lot of rain. For us, it would be.

Rain in the desert shows you all the problems that are forgotten when the weather is dry. Intersections that don't drain, street lights out, debris that's accumulated and plugs things up. It used to be that a lot of cars would stall in the rain because of moisture in the ignition system and on the spark plug cables. That doesn't seem to happen to newer cars.

 

[MrPixel]

Rain in the desert shows you all the problems that are forgotten when the weather is dry.

Ah, but there are some wonderful things, too, tho' some is location-dependent. My favorite was a drive through northern Nevada just after a summer shower, and the sagebrush was amazingly fragrant. But even the Mojave, where I grew up, had this wonderful sinus-clearing aromatic ambiance from the Russian thistle.

But you're right, though. Hard rains create so many problems for areas that are totally dry 99% of the time.

C is off at the dentist for a long-procrastinated filling repair. So I need to get off my butt and change out of my authoring bathrobe to be ready for lunch when she gets back.

 

[NotWise]

Ah, but there are some wonderful things, too, tho' some is location-dependent. My favorite was a drive through northern Nevada just after a summer shower, and the sagebrush was amazingly fragrant. But even the Mojave, where I grew up, had this wonderful sinus-clearing aromatic ambiance from the Russian thistle.

Doesn't happen so much in the city. We live on the ragged edge of the city where some people still keep livestock, so rain makes the air smell like wet horse shit as often as it makes it smell like the desert.

 

[NotWise]

I've been having problems with my right hand--mostly the index finger--since last week. I thought initially I'd aggravated arthritis that I didn't have before. I'm thinking now it may be a stress fracture. It usually doesn't bother me, but when it does it bothers me a lot.

 

[MrPixel]

I've been having problems with my right hand--mostly the index finger--since last week. ... I'm thinking now it may be a stress fracture.

Hmm. Probably similar to the hairline fractures I'd get playing football in school going for hard passes. But those would always be my middle finger. Picture the splint.

 

[NotWise]

Hmm. Probably similar to the hairline fractures I'd get playing football in school going for hard passes. But those would always be my middle finger. Picture the splint.

Did that mess with tuba practice?

 

[MrPixel]

Did that mess with tuba practice?

Shit yeah. Worse... some of the band guys and I were roughhousing after a performance and suddenly my side started hurting real bad. Rushed to the ER... broken rib. Doctor was explaining the X-ray, going, "Hmm. This is a fracture from a couple of weeks ago. You just cracked it again." Never could figure out what caused it the first time.

Oh... and it was parade season and I was playing sousaphone. The guys would snicker whenever I grimaced putting the damn thing on.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

It's a little cloudy this morning with a threat of several rounds of rain. We need it so I won't complain. At least I have all of the tomatoes, zucchini, and herbs potted up. I've made a dent into the weeding but they grow so fast ...

I've got the coffee brewing and the teapot hot. Today's selection of pastries is sponsored by the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway.

I'll be over in the corner researching and writing the third vignette of five. I think I will make my deadline but it will be close ...

 

[NotWise]

I've got the coffee brewing and the teapot hot. Today's selection of pastries is sponsored by the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway.

That's some thrilling history.

The NYT hard Sudoku consumed a little over 16 minutes this morning. I have extra time on my hands. I'm curious sometimes how they estimate the difficulty of their puzzles.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

<snip> I'm curious sometimes how they estimate the difficulty of their puzzles.

I do, too. Sometimes the hard ones finish quickly and sometimes the easy ones take forever ...

 

[NotWise]

I do, too. Sometimes the hard ones finish quickly and sometimes the easy ones take forever ...

One of the first things I read when I tackled the problem of categorizing Sudokus said that it's hard to predict difficulty.

It's fairly common to break Sudokus into five categories based on the techniques used to solve them. The names vary, but Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert and Master seem like common terms. For the NYT Sudokus, the medium and hard Sudokus seem to use the same set of techniques. Every now and then I use an X-box on the Hard puzzle. I don't see that on the medium puzzles, but that's only once a week. I'm often baffled by the difference between the puzzles but the Medium puzzle almost always solves faster than the Hard puzzle.

Today I used an X-box to solve the puzzle, but the rest of the puzzle was easy as pie, like they used some kind of tradeoff. "We threw in this technique that we don't usually use, but the rest of the puzzle is simple, so we'll publish it."

I use a two-way classification to rank the puzzles I make. There are four categories of technique, and four categories of effort based on how many iterations my solver takes to solve the puzzle. Sometimes "expert" puzzles turn out to be easier than they should be if you know the technique. That happens with the Microsoft Sudokus online, as well.

 

[NotWise]

The Mexican bird of paradise (a shrub related to mimosa) is in full bloom. The honey bees found it, and I think the whole hive was visiting it this morning.



I don't know how I got a picture without a bee in it. They must have been avoiding me.

For scale, one standard-sized honey bee fits nicely into each flower. I've also seen caterpillars on the flowers that were yellow, like the petals, and a wren that specialized in hunting those caterpillars.

The whole bush is as high as the eaves of the house and it's covered with these flowers. They're heavy enough to pull half the branches to the ground.

 

[NotWise]

Today is the 48th anniversary of my move here for job and grad school. It should be very typically warm, dry and sunny.

I got the sun shade up yesterday then put a splint on my right index finger. Having it there causes a few challenges.

This morning's NYT hard Sudoku took 16 minutes.

This is also my third consecutive post to the thread. Talking to myself.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

It's a beautiful sunny morning, perfect for sitting out on the patio with a cup of Earl Grey watching the antics of the babies chasing their mothers around demanding to be fed ...

There's a fresh pot of coffee brewing. I started using the new beans I had delivered, so let me know how you like it. The teapot is hot and there are several types of pastries on the counter, hopefully something you like.

I'll be over in the corner, working on my new story. It;s coming along nicely and I hope to have it done by the Fourth of July ...