Got my First Troll on Quora

I answered a question on Quora, and at the bottom of the post, like many other Quorans, I said, "If you liked this answer, give me an upvote."  It seems to have worked because this is the most upvoted answer I've ever had.  It's likely more that it was posted to a very active space, and the question is getting a lot of answers.

Anywho, someone commented, "I block upvote beggars" and did so.  I went and looked at her profile, and as you can imagine, she has a whacky About Me which implies she thinks she's more sought after than reality would suggest.  

"And asking me to upvote and follow is the fastest way to earn a mute and block. Don’t be tacky. Earn your upvote."

As she blocked me, I could not reply to her comment.  If I could, I would say something like: 

I didn't beg, I asked.  Unless my answer got sent directly to you somehow, I didn't personally ask you for an upvote.  I'm not sure how I'm supposed to know about this rule of yours that you feel should carry the day,  especially since other Quorans do it all the time.  You could have just scrolled past or silently blocked me, and I'd continue blissfully in not even knowing you exist.  

But I guess that is the point, isn't it.  You want attention and the last and only word.  Well, go peddle crazy somewhere else, we're all filled up here.

Good Bye March, Hello April

 For almost the entirety of March, we were able to function with the heat and AC set to OFF.  We were even able to sleep with the windows open, and it was some of the best sleep I've had since the kiddos arrived!

There were 2 cold snap days, and a few mornings I needed to run the heat for an hour so the kids could defrost and get to school.  And toward the end of the month, we did have a few above-average hot days when AC was desired.  These were offset by us going out of town for a weekend and being able to leave the Nest set to ECO.  

Alas, the temps are steadily creeping up and I have a small window to do any outdoor/garage projects before the Southern Summer begins (in Mid-May). 

The Running Shoes  

As soon as I got home from dropping Moose and Squirrel off at school, I changed into my running clothes and went for what passes for me running these days.  It was my second run since buying the new shoes.  Anyway, I managed to eke out another 1-mile run, slightly faster than the first one.  More importantly, I ran longer than I walked.

Date Distance Pace Time

04-01-2026    1 mile 11:35   11:42 

03-23-2026    1 mile 12:04   12:22 

On the first run, it took a quantum of seconds to get the Strava App to pause, so the Time was probably at least 10 seconds faster. By the way I really hate the Strava app and website.  it is hard to navigate and it is constantly trying to sell you the pay version.  Since my data lives here, I'm stuck with it for a while.  If the running thing takes off and gets anywhere in the neighborhood of consistency, let alone what it once way, I'll look for a better tool.

Bedroom is now complete

Instead of sitting around the house all day doing nothing much, I got us to go to Memphis on Saturday.  The reason was twofold.  

First, I wanted to replace the last remnants of the sectional that the cats have destroyed with this:

Second, I wanted to get some new running shoes.  I'm past my glory days of running piles of miles, but I think I can start doing a mile or two after I drop the kids off at school.

I went for a 1-mile run on Monday, so if I use the Anne Landers School of Thought, it cost me $130 for that run.  When I run another mile, it will be $65.  And so-on and so-on.  

It's interesting to note that the chaise lounge cost less than the shoes.  It was listed at $75, but I got them to give me a $5 discount because there was some scuffs.  At the same time, I sold something for my in-laws and the buyers offered me $200 down from $250.  Ca sara sara.  

Some meal favorites

 On the Book of Faces, I shared a post from The Onion about substituting ingredients in a recipe. The first time I try a new recipe, I strive to use all the ingredients and follow directions to the letter.

An exception might be that it calls for an ingredient I don’t have and don’t want to invest in. For instance, earlier this week I made česnečka soup but didn’t have marjoram (actually, we did, I just didn’t see it in the cupboard) so I used oregano instead.

Last night I made crockpot shrimp scampi. I made this a few weeks ago, but didn’t have any cooking white wine, so i used vinegar wine. BIG mistake. This needs either cooking wine or real white wine.
I did use lime juice instead of lemon juice but otherwise followed the recipe and it was delicious.

https://lowcarbyum.com/crock-pot-shrimp-scampi-slow-cooker-recipe/

Last Week I made česnečka or Czech garlic soup.  Forgot to take a photo but it was delicious.  

Work Friends, Colleagues and Acquaintances

Last week two former work colleagues reconnected with me.  I sent a text to Sasha* asking a simple yes/no/the color purple question.  A tad bit later she responded, ignored the question, and just said she was traveling back from Tampa Bay.  Date with Tom Brady?  I said no worries, we can chat/text tomorrow after you get some sleep.

* I don't remember what alias I use for her here.

So of course, she does the one thing that fucking annoys the hell out of me. She calls without first brokering a call, as if we are living in 1987.  It turns out her dad is going to have quadruple bypass surgery the next day.  

We talked for about an hour until the call started getting staticky.  i guess she was driving and got ot a place where the reception wasn't great.   I was also picking up my kids at this point, so I said let's talk tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a person I worked with at Big Audit 2.0 reached out to me on LinkedIn.  I like her, but I trust her as much as I trust gas station sushi.  She really straddled the line of being my work friend and also enabling my Office Nemesis.  Let's call her Veronica.

Veronica reached out, acknowledged that it has been 4 years since we last chatted. In fact, it was actually 4 years almost to the day.   I'm not sure if she was genuinely interested in what I was up to verses a fishing expedition but I took the bait.  We exchanged some messages and left it with maybe we will have another phone call soon.  

"no special reason to reach out, I was scrolling through LinkedIn and remembered out chats: I miss those! there is nobody left to chat with at work, I so do not fit the group I am in right now - it's really sad; there are no lunches, or after work drinks, everyone is sitting alone at home...and majority of people I came up with are gone and the group I am in right now is a lot younger than me so they are at a different stage of their lives; I am not on social media other than Facebook which I try hard to stay away from as it has become toxic; I will stay in touch here on LinkedIn for now, maybe we can chat on the phone one day? like dinosaurs we are :)

stay well and in touch!"

I'll probably send a volley to her, seeing if this is a Genuine Offer versus Conversational Device.  I'm 0 for 3 with recent phone calls and that doesn't include Sasha.  She actually did ask me how things were going when we talked the second time.  

Hello March - a bit late

 It goes without saying that I have done a terrible job of keeping up with this blog.  It's probably a combination of laziness, not having an audience, and having a boring, mostly uneventful last remaining years of life.

Trespassers

As a Stay-At-Home-Dad (SAHD), I don't get out much.  I take the kids to school, maybe run some errands, try to get some stuff done around the house, and then pick the kids up.  It's hard to tell what day it is, unless there is something that I can anchor to.  Certain Substacks I follow come out on specific days.  Same with some TV shows that we watch.

Pepper Sandwiches for the Lent I no longer observe

I'm very isolated down here with no local friends.  My attempts at having standing phone calls with people have not worked out.  People like to talk, talk, talk but not ask me anything.  

March definitely came in like a Lion.   We had: 

• Daylight Saving Time, 
• Spring Break, 
• Friday the 13th, 
• Pi Day, 
• Ides of March, 
• International Women's Day (I think)
• St Patrick's Day.  

And also March Madness and the Oscars for those who are into that sort of thing...and I'm not.  Oh and America (at least the MAGA part) declared war on Iran on the first day of Ramadan.  

We also had me puking my guts out all day and night last Saturday.  I couldn't even hold down water, which sucked because I was getting dehydrated.  I barely got 4 hours of sleep.  We thought it might be a virus, but since no one else in the household got it, we are attributing it to food poisoning.  

The good news is that the next morning, I felt better and could drink water again, though I craved soda pop like no one's business.

The next few weeks are not gonna be any less easier.  There are field trips and science fairs.  And who knows what else from the unhinged, unrestrained, lying, petulant, insecure, thrice married, serial wife-cheating, porn star-banging, blue collar-worker-stiffing con artist in the White House.

More Catching Up

 I did something to my shoulder and cannot bring it full circle without the ibuprofen.  Even with the meds it still hurts a tad when I try perform some basic function that involves my left arm, like typing.  I have a lot of things I want and need to do around the house now that the weather is warming up, but I also know that if I overdo it, I will injure myself further.  So with great frustration, the great garage cleanout reorg is delayed again.

The Saturday after Martin Luther King's Birthday, a good part of the country, including our neck of the woods, was hit with a big ice storm.  We knew it was coming in the sense that it's not gonna pass us by, be mild, or be short-term.  We knew the kids would be home for at least a week.  

It turned out to be two weeks.  The first week was declared an emergency and doesn't need to be made up, but apparently, they are still figuring out the second week. The kids had to give up President's Day as the first make-up day, hopefully the only one

Sidenote: our county does this thing where if there is a holiday during the week (typically a Monday Holiday) garbage pickup is shifted one day.  This usually isn't a problem but remember that It's Definitely Coming Storm!  Everyone whose pickup is on Friday had to wait two weeks until theirs got picked up, as well as the rest of the county for the following week.

I get the Holiday Day Shift, but they ended up doing it again in the second week, so it would have been better to somehow get all the pre-storm garbage collected.  

Meanwhile, the storm allowed Nightingale to "help" the kids get their science fair projects completed.  They would have been due Jan 27 but were extended to February 11th and we used each weekend we were home to move the project forward instead of wait until the last minute.  Yay Nightingale.