*looks up at the clear blue sky* It's a beautiful day for Fiesta Friday!

Altaira

Altaira

Super User
Staff member
Greetings, fellow TORnsibs! We made it to the end of another week which calls for our usual celebratory gathering - Fiesta, of course!

We're having a pretty mild beginning to summer here, which is appreciated as we replaced the ceiling fan in the house we're renovating with a ceiling light, and the breeze is missed in the afternoons especially. A fan that's good on tables or on the floor has taken it's place, and we can always retreat to working in the nice cool basement if needed.

What projects have you been working on this week, or do you have planned for the weekend? Gardening? Finishing a good book?

There are a bunch of exciting things happening above us in the sky today. As I write, there's a space-walk going on at the International Space Station that you can watch and listen in here,[/url] on Space.com's website. In a few hours, there's also another launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 in just a few hours (scheduled around 4:18 EST) that you can watch on the same site. Or, if you'd rather get outside and actually look up at the sky, try Astronomy.com's The Sky This Week (mostly for U.S. stargazers).

No matter how you plan to enjoy the beautiful sky, the beautiful day, and the beautiful weekend, there's a bunch of tasty food at the beautiful buffet, and the blenders are whizzing for smoothies and icy summer drinks!

*kicks juke box* "Major Tom" by Peter Shilling starts to play.

Hope your weekend is out of this world, everyone!! [cool][heart][:)]

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It's been in the 80's and a tad humid - typical summer, and the strawberries are prolific! Could I have a strawberry kiwi smoothie, please?

It sounds like you've been spending much of your time with the renovations! Did everything get sold at the estate/yard sales?

We spent a couple of days visiting my mom-in-law earlier this week, and did some vine-trimming for her. Other siblings & spouses have been re-painting her house. One sister-in-law created a PVC pipe grid to enclose her large blueberry bushes and support the netting needed to keep out the deer and birds while the berries ripen.

The space video feeds are a bit better nowadays than those of a couple of decades ago! [laugh] It's fascinating being able to watch what they're doing.
 
That reminds me, I have some fresh strawberries and blueberries that need to be eaten. I'll make a strawberry kiwi smoothie for you and one for me with strawberries and blueberries Yum!

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It sounds like your mom-in-law has a great network of support. Definitely need to keep the deer from those blueberries.

A fair amount of things sold at the estate sale. One of the best things was my mother's bedroom suite sold to a woman who fell madly in love with it and apparently had a birthday coming up, so her husband said she could have it as her birthday present. When I was standing outside with him later waiting for a truck to come pick it up, I commented on how nice it was of him to do that. He smiled and said something like: well, she deserves it, and this way I don't have to go looking for something else. [laugh]

Have a wonderful weekend!
 
Hiya, Altaira. Hope your summer stays mild--just seeing the words "nice cool basement" takes me back to those hot, humid days in the Midwest where we'd grab popsicles and retreat to the basement to cool down.

Well, finally some news to share - yesterday I gave my boss my 2 week's notice. I'm quitting! Things had continued to deteriorate in the last couple of weeks, to the point of driving me into a nasty mental/emotional/physical place. My body was telling me something, I think, and I decided it was worth listening to.

My boss handled it...neither as well as I had hoped, nor as poorly as I had feared--something in the middle. Everyone there is so self-centered that the notion of someone wanting to leave comes as a bit of a sudden shock. But all's well that ends well - I got a call from our owner that was very nice, which did not burn the bridge and will keep the relationship on solid footing. My last day may be early next week, just so they don't have me sitting around doing nothing.

And that's that! It's funny, because I had gone into this job knowing I would pivot out of it after roughly a year. So it's not going against my plan, on a macro level. I'm going to take some time--maybe a month or two--to simply relax, recalibrate myself (I haven't taken time off in years) and dive in into my creative passions before I start thinking about what the next job will be.

Thank you all for putting up with the anxiety-ridden Fiesta updates for the past year! I appreciate the relentless support, truly.

On that note, I'm hoping to have a *very* relaxing weekend full of sleep. It's sad that LA (among other areas) is seeing a scary spike in Covid cases. We're continuing to stay locked down and be cautious, so I'm not sure we'll be going anywhere in public other than a drive here and there.

Hope everyone is staying safe! Keep convincing those stubborn friends and relatives to wear their masks! :)
 
A bit odd, maybe, to say that given the circumstances, but it sounds like the best possible thing happened in the almost-best possible way. It also sounds like you've already had a big burden lifted from your life. Bravo to you!!

Taking some time off just for you is well-deserved. Enjoy your relaxing, restful weekend! [:)]
 
But so far we've had a great summer.
Since March, some neighbors have been getting together every Friday for a socially distant happy hour. We gather on a quiet side street and enjoy a drink and spending actual face-to-face time. In the early days, it was the highlight of our week since we were all isolating and most of our human interaction was via conference calls. It's such a pleasure to speak live with other people.
Now that our city is starting to open up, live interactions are more common, but we still have our happy hour (still six feet apart) every Friday. It's great to just hang out with our neighbors.
I'll take one of those blueberry smoothies - yum!
 
Certainly a strange set of circumstances. Yes, it's like I had the top masseuse in the world spend an entire day taking away the tension. :)

Thanks, and hope you have a great weekend too!
 
Who would imagine finding a birthday present like that at an estate sale! I'm glad the suite was sold together.

Mmm, thank you for the smoothie! Have a fun weekend! [:)]
 
For getting yourself out of a bad place - but now you've got that year's experience under your belt, and that's a good thing!

Do you feel like you're floating? [cool]

Now, plan some nice "down time"! That's sad about the Covid increasing out there (and in other "hot spots"), I know you'll be extremely careful.
 
Folks around here are also getting used to the in-person distancing. We're on a cul-de-sac and some families have young children, and the kids will distance-play while the adults distance-chat.

I've been hearing the phrase "all Zoomed out", to indicate the longing for more in-person interaction!

By the way, how were the new windows this winter? And are they helping keep the cool in, during the hotter times?
 
Thunder actually shook the house, which is most unusual for us (and we have a *very* solid house). Amazingly enough, the power didn't go off, just dimmed a couple of times. There was a small tornado, too, not local to us but not a huge distance away. Definitely a wild night!

And right now it's sunny. Island weather, never boring :)

Another quiet week, and another quiet weekend. I made sourdough bread this morning, and also a batch of tapenade, so I know what's for lunch. This afternoon, the task that can't be put off any longer: finishing the tax returns. They're mostly done, it's just the few things then the vital checking of the details. Looking forward to rewarding myself with a glass of pinot noir tonight!

Wishing everyone a safe and healthy weekend.
 
This year is sailing by!!

*geeky hand clapping* Thanks for the links! It's so exciting to be a witness to the incredible action going on in space. It's been a long time coming and needed so badly… something positive to share.

NASA has a page where you can sign up for email alerts of dates/time/location in the sky of when the International Space Station will pass over your area. They give it in 2-week intervals (constantly updated) during the evening so you can "spot the station" as it sails by. It's a golden little star on a mission… easy to spot in clear skies if you're not in the city with too much lighting.

It's been really hot here the past couple of weeks. In the high 80s/low 90s with very little rain. Nothing really since that wind storm a couple of weeks ago. The grass is crispy. But the past couple of days have been more in the low to mid 80s... which is a great break! We're supposed to have rain tonight (Friday); but just a quick trip... then more dry and heat.

I've always got projects going on. I finished cutting up the fallen trees (that I can reach), stacked the wood and cleaned up the debris so I could mow the grass. I'm back to resurfacing my chimney. I'm doing all of this to avoid cleaning inside ;)

Thanks for taking such great care of us, Altaira! I hope you and everyone's weekend is restful and fun!!!
 
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You guys are fantastic! :D I'll bet she's been overwhelmed with these visits and how much you accomplish. AND I'll bet she spends a lot of time just looking at everything and tinkering around since you left.

So you finally had a little time off, eh? It's got to be a relief to have the end of the year returns finished.

I've got to put in a strawberry patch. I've been getting them at the grocery store, and they're tasteless. I just bought some at a local farmer's stand, and there's NO COMPARISON!!! *slaver slurp*

I hope you have a fun and restful weekend, m'dear :D
 
It'll be nice if they don't insist on you staying. It sounds like you've definitely made the right decision! The relief is already moving in :D *high five* WELL DONE! July will be a fresh start :D
 
That sounds like so much fun and so relaxing. Something to look forward to at the end of these long weeks. Do you bring your own refreshments? I'm thinking YES since much of that time there weren't many places open for orders. I really hope you can all keep it up. There's nothing like being around people for real conversation. Have a wonderful weekend, m'dear! :D
 
What a fascinating mix! This sounds more like Spring weather than mid-Winter. I hope no damage was done from the storm.

I also hope your covid resurgence has been capped off. I could image those carriers were descended on like flies on sugar! Hang in there and have a GREAT weekend! Don't tax yourself too much ;)
 
The friends I was staying with have a dog who is scared of thunder. There we were trying to play it cool so that we didn't reinforce his fear while the poor thing was hiding behind a chair. It was a impressive night of storms.
 
After our hot spell (30C on Thursday, for example, too hot for my comfort) we've had some decent gentle rain to soak in and help the ground. In reading Tony Hillerman's books set in the Navajo Nation I learned that sort of rain is described as 'female rain' whereas downpours that cause flash floods etc are termed 'male rain'. Interesting! I quite enjoy a thunderstorm and my daughter's dog is not bothered by it, in fact we were walking in the woods when a thunderstorm blew up the other evening and he didn't bat an eyelid - but he doesn't like fireworks!
Congrats on taking the plunge, cats16 - sometimes things just have to be done. I hope the change will do you good. All the family DIY sounds great and really helpful - it's lovely when people can rally round. My dad did a lot of DIY; I've just handed on some of his tools (about time, after more than three years) to a local contact for an organisation called Tools for Gambia, which trains young people into various trades. I had a lot of duplicates - screwdrivers, hammers, chisels, spirit levels etc - as I already had stuff of my own when I inherited his. Nice to think of it helping someone somewhere.
I like to see the space station passing over, but am still quite ignorant of the constellations, I only know a few of them - the really well-known ones like Ursa Major/Plough/Big Dipper, Orion, Pleiades and how to find the Pole Star and North. Could do with improving my knowledge! That would be a good winter project actually.

Face-to-face time, that we always used to take for granted, has become a precious thing! Meeting up for garden chats or going for a walk together is extra special now. Restrictions are being loosened, but hugs are still off the menu. *sigh* I worry about infection rates rising again, after scenes of crowded beaches in the hot weather, BLM protests where many weren't wearing masks, and most recently the celebrations for Liverpool FC finally winning the Champions League after 30 years - despite the pleas of the players and manager crowds of people still gathered around the closed football ground and down by the river. Only time will tell whether their gamble has paid off! I'm not a gambler, I'm still being very cautious. I want to see my grandsons grow up!
Stay safe, keep your spirits up and have a good weekend, folks - cheers!
 
are so superior to the hot-house grown! The plants take 2 or 3 years to mature, I think, so if you plant a bed of them this summer and keep them well-straw'd it will be a while...but just think of when you'll be able to pick a handful of sweetness each morning! [:)]

Thanks, gramma, I hope you and the furry ones have a pleasant weekend too!
 
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