The AH Coffee Shop and Reading Room 09

[Kumquatqueen]

My offering for Sunday breakfast/brunch are homemade English Muffins, misleadingly named since I've never seen them outside the US (maybe Canada?)

They make a cameo appearance in my latest story.

View attachment 2509617

They exist in England! Not as common as crumpets, baps or bagels, but you can still get them.

Luckily the horror of the long-life American muffin, a greasy cellophane-wrapped gross monstrosity, is going out of fashion except on really low-sales stalls.

 

[Duleigh]

They exist in England! Not as common as crumpets, baps or bagels, but you can still get them.

Luckily the horror of the long-life American muffin, a greasy cellophane-wrapped gross monstrosity, is going out of fashion except on really low-sales stalls.

Wait 'till y'all discover a true American culinary masterpiece. A breakfast indulgence par excellence. I can't believe that... what's that foul mouth guys name... Gordon Ramsey! That guy isn't serving it all his lunch counters

CHEEZY SHRIMP 'N GRITS!

I'm gittin' hungry jes thainkin' about it!

 

[MrPixel]

Actually just bought him a goat horn...

In what key?

 

[MrPixel]

Welcome to Daylight Savings Time -- at least for those in the US. Neither mind nor body wanted to get started this morning.

I had a sales table at a hobby show today. Venue was such that I had to get up at 6:00 a.m., i.e., 0500 hours yesterday's time. I was so groggy I forgot to shave. I must have been a sight.

Didn't matter, thank goodness. Caught up with a lot of friends who hadn't seen much of me since the heart attack, and sales were very brisk. Glad I took the time and effort.

 

[MrPixel]

Speaking about adjusting to DST...

Today's show was too far away, so I spent the night at a hotel near the convention. Upshot was I wasn't going to be at home to jump the clocks before going to bed, and I told her not to try with one particular clock as it was fragile and would likely break under unlearned hands.

Anyway, she was thankful all the computers and phones adjusted, and she managed to set the new time on the microwave, but only the microwave. So I had this urgent chore facing me on arrival home this evening.

The other side of this is we have an expression with each other "Please don't teach me how to build me a watch (when all I want to know is the time)!" That's all due to this engineer's tendency to mansplain.

So I start to go through the procedure to adjust the various "more difficult" (normal) clocks. "Sorry dear, but this time I do need to tell you how to build a watch." She appreciated the irony.

 

[Duleigh]

We're down to 4 clocks that need to be changed, the stove, the microwave, the clock in GG's room and the clock in my office, the last two being analog clocks. However, they're right now. DST is longer than Standard time (4 months longer) so I just do the math for 4 months.

 

[YmaOHyd]

My plan is just to wait for the next power outage to reset the stove and microwave.

 

[MrPixel]

However, they're right now.

As in they're right, right now, right?

 

[ElectricBlue]

My offering for Sunday breakfast/brunch are homemade English Muffins, misleadingly named since I've never seen them outside the US (maybe Canada?)

They make a cameo appearance in my latest story.

View attachment 2509617

Australia has these, here they're called muffins.

 

[Rustyoznail]

In what key?

G flat...

And he ain't getting up again.

 

[Rustyoznail]

My plan is just to wait for the next power outage to reset the stove and microwave.

Outages are so common, I've given up on the oven and the microwave.

 

[Duleigh]

As in they're right, right now, right?

Right!

 

[Duleigh]

Speaking of power outages, I finally got wise and put the internet/wifi router on a UPS. Yesterday when power went out while watching TV we all switched to our laptops and watched Youtube videos until power came back on and we could continue watching Ben-Hur (1959) on the Roku Tubi app. BTW - that was the first time I've ever seen Ben-Hur all the way through. I've seen the rowing sequence and the chariot race, I never knew why he was doing all that. What a movie!

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Ah ... the return of the random 1* bombs. Got one the last two days. But I also got one swept away so not too bad.

There's a fresh pot of coffee brewing and the teapot is hot for those who enjoy a cuppa. There are English muffins and cake muffins on the counter for those who want to see the difference between the two (and taste them, too).

Got a flash of inspiration and made a major change in the flow of the story I'm working on involving moving several scenes around so the story flows better now. I'll be over in the corner furiously making changes so time-travel isn't inadvertently invoked ...

 

[Rustyoznail]

Speaking of power outages, I finally got wise and put the internet/wifi router on a UPS. Yesterday when power went out while watching TV we all switched to our laptops and watched Youtube videos until power came back on and we could continue watching Ben-Hur (1959) on the Roku Tubi app. BTW - that was the first time I've ever seen Ben-Hur all the way through. I've seen the rowing sequence and the chariot race, I never knew why he was doing all that. What a movie!

SE Queensland and NE New South Wales have been battered by a slow moving cyclone thatparked itself offshore for a few days before landing. Over 300,000 premises don't have power.

We have a Mitsubishi Outlander plug in hybrid, and the related FB group have people up there having their fridge and other essentials plugged into the car's 240v, 1500W outlet.

They are very happy with that. Four people have been taken to hospital because they started a generator inside the house.

 

[Belegon]

Good Monday morning to all... time travel, Candy? did you write someone having knowledge of something they should't have? They weren't betting out of a sports almanac, were they?

Been a long time since I watched any of the Back To the Future movies...

Coffee and Poptarts for me this morning. Remembered to put butter on the poptarts... the only thing of value I got from my limited viewings of AdventureTime.

 

[WordsIntheWyld]

Nothing says "modern civilization," like pretending we have the power to bend time, only to spend the next month showing up an hour early or late to everything.

 

[NotWise]

Speaking of power outages, I finally got wise and put the internet/wifi router on a UPS. Yesterday when power went out while watching TV we all switched to our laptops and watched Youtube videos until power came back on and we could continue watching Ben-Hur (1959) on the Roku Tubi app. BTW - that was the first time I've ever seen Ben-Hur all the way through. I've seen the rowing sequence and the chariot race, I never knew why he was doing all that. What a movie!

I've only ever seen cuts from the 1959 version. I found the 1925 version on Amazon and watched it when I was working on "Love is Enough." The 1959 film is a remake of that. The 1925 version was very long and, since it was pre-code, it contained both male and female nudity. There's a scene before the chariot race with some woman trying to seduce Ben Hur. She's incredibly sexy, in a diaphonous, flowing robe and no bra. The chariot race itself was before there were codes protecting animals, and those horses were obviously hurt. The sea battle scenes were something I didn't think they could film back then, but they did.

 

[dmallord]

Time... everyone wants more of it. Wouldn't it be nice to press a reset button and get back some of those 'wasted' hours you could have used to be more 'productive' or a do-over you miserably failed at?

Does anyone recall the old Timex watch commercials that said ... takes a beating and keeps on ticking? I feel sort of like that these days.

Thanks to the soul that provides today's cuppa

 

[MillieDynamite]

I hate daylight savings time. Coffee anyone?

I hate it because Monday through Saturday, I get up at 5:00 a.m., and Sunday, I sleep until 8. Only 8 was already 9 when I got up yesterday, and now my body treats 5 a.m. like it's 4 a.m., which it was last week.

Make mine straight black, please.

And it doesn't take a week to get used to. Or even two weeks. It takes me until April.

Wait, I have my own coffee—French Vallina from my French Press. I have an extra cup here. Coffee, anyone?

 

[NotWise]

I'm pretty good with the time change on the second day (today). It's only the first day that's a problem.

I was reminded while driving into work that I still need to change the clock in my truck.

 

[Duleigh]

Arrrggghhhh! My favorite editing tool just crapped the bed!

Microsoft Word has a function called "Read Aloud" which when it started had a lot of natural voices but eventually got pared down to two choices Female and Not Female. Didn't matter, they were great voices. Then on March 8, I turned on word to edit a 130k word book and hit Read Aloud and got this

Three problems. 1. Oops? What adult programmer uses "Oops" in an error message? 2. I AM signed in. 3. You can do nothing until you click OK then you're forced to endure Microsoft David, Microsoft Zira, and Microsoft Mark, three computer generated voices that predate most dinosaurs. The sound of those rasping, droning, souless voices is less pleasurable than a cheese grater taken to my bare back. A lot less.

I'm not alone, there's pages of feedback to Microsoft over this. I have so much editing and those damn noises are giving me headaches, and it's ridiculous. Microsoft Edge has dozens and dozens of natural voices that make listening to a document pleasurable, why did Microsoft have to go Boeing on Word?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, hell's figgen bells, mines all f*d up to.

Arrrggghhhh! My favorite editing tool just crapped the bed!

Microsoft Word has a function called "Read Aloud" which when it started had a lot of natural voices but eventually got pared down to two choices Female and Not Female. Didn't matter, they were great voices. Then on March 8, I turned on word to edit a 130k word book and hit Read Aloud and got this
View attachment 2510471
Three problems. 1. Oops? What adult programmer uses "Oops" in an error message? 2. I AM signed in. 3. You can do nothing until you click OK then you're forced to endure Microsoft David, Microsoft Zira, and Microsoft Mark, three computer generated voices that predate most dinosaurs. The sound of those rasping, droning, souless voices is less pleasurable than a cheese grater taken to my bare back. A lot less.

I'm not alone, there's pages of feedback to Microsoft over this. I have so much editing and those damn noises are giving me headaches, and it's ridiculous. Microsoft Edge has dozens and dozens of natural voices that make listening to a document pleasurable, why did Microsoft have to go Boeing on Word?

 

[YmaOHyd]

Those are the only three I have as well. I've never used Read Aloud, though.

 

[Duleigh]

Send feedback to MS so they know how big they screwed up. In Word click Help, then Feedback, then Report a problem. Grab my screen shot from my post here and attach that so you don't have to fight for a screen shot of that stoopid error message.