Mlle. Zabzie

Agree on the money thing with both of you….And, this may become an issue for me. But we shall see. I may have my first update here next week. Stay tuned. I’m getting the best coaching behind the scenes.

Update. The crawling has commenced… @Madame deVenoge is wise in the way.

Thank you! I’m not sure if he is going to crawl back. I don’t really care. OMFG I do not care. I think I’m going to be ready pretty soon. My college reunion was…eye opening (note that all behavior was of a standard that behooves a lady - absolutely nothing untoward occurred).

Many thanks!!!

Congratulating. Should have done it a while ago. Trust me, reconciliation is completely, utterly, and entirely out of the picture. I am D.O.N.E. I’m sort of holding it together to keep the divorce as low key as it can possibly be, but I want as little to do with his ass as possible. So, anyhow, adventure time to come!

Announcement: After a 20 year hiatus, Mlle. Zabzie is now back on the market. Stay tuned for adventures, coming soon to a post near you this summer.

I have a friend who is an ER doctor who calls motorcycles “donor cycles.” Apparently it’s a pretty common view among ER types… The husband person is an aggressive driver now and was a VERY reckless driver as a young man (before I met him). I don’t like getting in the car with him when we are going any kind of distance. He knows it - and sometimes gets annoyed when I’m clutching the handles. With no traffic, the drive from the city to our house takes me an hour and four minutes. He does it in 52 minutes. He’s done it in 37 (not with me in the car thank goodness). My last traffic ticket was in 1997 (speed trap town - my own dang fault; it was night and I didn’t see the sign going from 55 to 35 in like 200 yards). His was … well, let’s protect the guilty shall we? Anyhow, to everyone’s point, bragging about it is NOT CUTE. It’s what the kids used to call a red flag (which, for those who don’t know is the opposite of a beige flag). It suggests a certain self-centeredness and disregard for the well being of others. I knew about all this stuff including the teenage shenanigans of the husband person and I married him anyway, but in retrospect, it’s definitely symptomatic of other behavior that drives me crazy.

This is my second trip to London already of 2024. Since it is a work trip, I will be staying at the Corinthia (yes I know Lah di dah). There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Corinthia.

Feel like the biggest issue will be customs given that I live in the (former) colonies… But I’ll be in London in a couple of weeks

I’d be potentially up for outdoors. But I’m a lazy gardener… I currently have (anemic) strawberries - would like to do better. The plants are a few years old and have never really flourished where I have them so I was toying with digging them out and starting over in a different bed. I put in tomatoes every year (but only do cherry/grape types) and get a bonanza, squash (both gourds and summer squash), okra, cucumbers. I often put in shishito peppers. I like putting in melons, spring peas and beans of some variety. I have had poor luck with root crops. My big pest issues are rodents (freaking evil bunnies) and squash bugs. I have seen cut worm and cabbage worm (when I do broccoli/cauliflower/brussels sprouts). Depending on the year I have issues with aphids/powdery mildew though I have an (organic) system for that now. I have had black spot and mosaic issues (had to dig out soil and refill - ugh).

I am out of the habit of reading spec fic right now. Need to find some good stuff. However, recent excellent reads: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. It’s schmaltzy but enjoyed it. Nothing too deep. The Wolf Age by Tore Skele (in translation). History of the Vikings in the 9th-11th centuries. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles The Hapsburgs by Martin Rady The Middle Kingdoms by Martin Rady The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason Next up: The Djinn Waits A Hundred Years, The Young Queens, Starling House

Surprised not to see here the story of Joe Lewis pleading guilty for insider trading. He gave stock tips to his private pilots and chauffeurs because he didn’t establish a retirement plan for them and felt bad…

Not my area. May be classified as a “gift” rather than “income” so in the estate and gift regime rather than the income tax regime, but honestly not sure, don’t have enough facts, and not worth going to the rabbithole tonight.

I came here thinking this would be about the NYT suit against Open ai and Microsoft. And in fact the suit alleges that the AI is just theft/generating plagarism. If you read the articles side by side to a layperson they have a point.

Would folks be interested in a chain holiday card instead? My husband's family does this. First person buys a card and signs it with a nice message/book recommendation (sometimes people put in a paper crane or other origami in my family) and then a stamp so it can be sent on. Anyhow, it goes around the family until it goes back to my father in law and then he takes a picture and sends to everyone. It's a lot less a commitment and the cost of an envelope and stamp