Groupthink

Happy Thursday y'all. I can't believe that June is already on its way out. How are weeks so long but months so short? I am laying low for the holiday weekend. There was way too much going on the past couple of weekends and I need a break. What's going on today with you? Any holiday weekend plans for our US and Canada folks?

Good morning gang! What a strange sensation to be napping off and on with yesterday's hearing in the background. It was like a weird dream. In other observations, WTF Colorado? Really? (No offense to HB, I know it's not your district.) Anyway... I did a lot over the weekend and again yesterday. I'm back home and already in my pj's. The rest of today will be lazy and sleepy if all goes well. What's ahead for your day?

    Hey, lovies . I hope you're hanging in there and taking good care of yourself, whatever that means for you.  What's up with you today? I am going to go watch the niblings and, while they're napping, watch today's hearing. After that, I have therapy, which I suspect will be very messy but, hopefully, very helpful 🤞.  How about you? 💜💜💜

  Good morning, groupthink! I just did HoneyHeart's yoga video from yesterday's OT & it definitely helped me transition from this mood when I woke up. SCOTUS is releasing more decisions soon & I anticipate needing it twice once the EPA case is announced. Fun times continue.  One thing I learned about this weekend is how our many well-meant offers for safe traveling for abortion care are misguided, though coming from a deeply good place. That's the nice thing about being progressive--maintaining the ability to learn how you were wrong about something & changing. Here's a thread with more info & a lot of excellent resources. If you’re in a state that just banned abortion, DO NOT reach out to these people who are offering to let folks stay at their place if they need an abortion.🧵 — Kiki Djarin (@blackpnwlady) June 26, 2022 How was your weekend? We ate & drank so much on Friday, I'm surprised we didn't wake up with gout, lol. Then we ...

  Good morning, GT, and happy sunday! I hope you are all doing ok today. I know it's been a difficult and maddening few days and I hope you are all taking time for self care and that you give yourselves breaks from the news on occasion.  I'm checking out for a bit today to make sure my mental health is in check. I'm currently baking cinnamon rolls and I'm going to treat myself to a nice iced coffee. I'm planning to spend the afternoon watching funny videos while laying on the couch with Cosmo and I might treat myself to some Thai food.  How about y'all? How are you doing? How are you planning to spend this Sunday?

Good morning, GT. I woke up to a raging thunderstorm which seemed only appropriate. Instead of talking about weekend plans, let's make this a thread for what people can do to help themselves, or someone else, in need of abortion. Do you know of an event people should attend? A local organization we can donate to, even if we live far away? A candidate we should be volunteering to support? A congressperson we should be calling/writing? etc., etc. I'll start: There are many Bans off our Bodies protests, ongoing; you can check the map for those here    You can donate to the National Network of Abortion funds here   Or, search for a state which has made it difficult/illegal to get an abortion + abortion fund and donate there; Politico has a useful map of the US with an explanation of each state's abortion laws, after yesterday. You can see that here If you're willing/able, you might consider becoming an auntie (this is, admittedly, a more potentially dangerous option). You ...

Good evening & thank you to Sophia. She gets us. I thought tonight's evening social may help so let's do this. I wanted to protest, but Pal already bought me treats & suggested we wait until the big one tomorrow. That's fine with me because I'm honestly ready to decompress a little with way too much Chinese takeout & edibles.  Here's one of my favorite songs to kick things off.  I hope there's something to make you smile in the works tonight. Days like this make me appreciate our little community so much. Sending love this evening. It's been a bad, bad, day.  Here's a space to chat. <3 Ps. I'll pop in & out but I'd like to get out of the habit of it being a response vibe, if that makes sense. Improv OT. ;)  

  The Fur Faces are here to brighten your Friday! Stop by and share your own! https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2022/06/fur-face-friday_0772591886.html

 Hey ya'll! Happy Friday!  How is everyone doing on this Friday? Wow this week was dragging but we finally made it!  I don't have too many Fuck It's today other than the assholes I'm seeing in the Jan 6 trials but I'm SO glad others are getting their day to talk about their experiences. So much WTF.  Also a lot of FIF to digestive issues. I have to take a lactose test to see if that's the culprit of some digestive issues I've been having on and off for a few years bc I get a ton of bloating, cramps and other not-so-fun symptoms in the bathroom. He thinks it could be me needing to eliminate as much lactose as I can from my diet but even when I switched to lactose and dairy-free coffee milk or creamers, I still got the symptoms - sigh. So we'll see if we can figure out what my body is not liking.  How are you guys today?  UPDATE: WHAT THE FUCK ABOUT ROE!!???

 I hope everyone is well. I survived another school year and will be coming back for my third year at the school in August. I am in Istanbul. Got here yesterday after 5 days in Paris. I tried to laundry and couldn’t read the controls. Husband is sleeping.  Tried google translate’s photo feature aaaaand I am not sure of the results. I might try the “Fuck and Pump” cycle. Or “Karma 40.”

  Good morning, groupthink! It's day two of my self-declared staycation & I'm so sleepy. My brain decided sleeping wasn't a thing last night. I don't have a blueberry pie, but there is a funfetti cake I baked around 2 am. 😂 It sometimes pays to keep weird shit in your pantry. So, I'm having cake for breakfast while I watch some Housewives. Not too shabby for a sleepy morning! There's another January 6th hearing for later. No going outside due to hitting 100°. No thanks! Here's some cute for your Thursday. Taka is one very good puppy. :) This is Taka. He suffered severe burns in a house fire in 2018. Made a very miraculous full recovery and was adopted by the vet who saved him. Now he works as a therapy dog in a local burn unit. 14/10 pic.twitter.com/zr1nlat9UB — WeRateDogs® (@dog_rates) June 15, 2022 Finally, here's an interesting question. I'd recommend not reading the real article unless you need some rage to help you through today, though. ...

  Good morning, GT. Happy Wednesday! I woke up at 4am and Cosmo came running to me. Within seconds the room lit up and the loudest thunder I've ever heard hit. It was scary! It was followed by pouring rain and more lightening and thunder. Nobody was expecting such a big storm so I ended up having to run around my backyard putting stuff away. Not fun. I did manage to go back to sleep after an hour and woke up two hours later to even more thunder. So unusual for those of us in SoCal, but the rain is appreciated.  Ok, enough about the weather here. How are y'all doing today? How's the week shaping up for you? 

  Good morning, groupthink! I woke up early & was able to meditate outside in an attempt to center myself for whatever today brings. Our humidity is still low & it makes mornings so nice before the heat moves in. Today is SCOTUS opinion day & I have a hunch they're going to end Roe this week. The clock is running out. Hence, the meditation & if that doesn't do the job, there's meds. There's also another Jan. 6th hearing today. Swinging in a wildly different direction, huge thanks to Beyoncé for releasing her single. A most happy distraction from gloom. :) One more thing, tell an onion you appreciate it today. ;) After the French Revolution, saints' days were replaced with days honoring important items in rural French life. June 21 was the day to honor the onion. pic.twitter.com/ktvBMKzCEZ — Quite Interesting (@qikipedia) June 21, 2022 Okay, your turn. How's Tuesday going? 

  Hey, lovies--happy Mon.! I hope you all had a great weekend, whether that meant running, resting, celebrating, isolating, whatever you needed.  It's going to be hot-hot-hot here today and tomorrow (and, honestly, most of the week 😭). We're looking at a high of 95 today and a high of 97 tomorrow. So, in addition to our regular OT today, I thought maybe folks might like to share favorite hot-weather recipes. Whaddya say? How's your day looking and what are you eating on those hot-hot days? First thing tomorrow, I'm going to make what I call Lazy Bitch Pesto Pasta Salad. For that, I saute two bags of Trader Joe's Green Vegetable Foursome with an illegal amount of garlic, boil some pasta (I like fusilli for this one--the amount is up to you). Let those both cool, them mix them together and hit them with just a wee bit of EVOO, salt, pepper, and some lemon juice, if you like. Finally, pour as much pesto as you like over top (I use Costco's refrigerated pesto--ther...

  Happy Sunday, GT, and Happy Father's Day and Juneteenth to those celebrating.  I meant to get this post up a bit earlier but I overslept and now I'm running a bit behind. I'm about to head out the door so I'm keeping this post short.  How are you all doing today? For those of you celebrating Father's Day and/or Juneteenth, what's on your agenda? 

Hey, GT! We're set to have a nice weekend here so I'm hoping to get down to the farmers market but, if that doesn't happen, I'm at least going to weed the flower beds, while being outside is nice/tolerable. Tonight, we have plans to hang with friends at a balloon glow. They'll have (probably bad ;) live music and some (probably good) junky food truck food. It's been a minute since we've hung out with this couple, so it'll be nice to just sit around in the grass and catch up.  Sun., I've promised to go over and help my parents paint as a Father's Day present. And Sun. afternoon/evening, I'm going to be a lazy so-and-so. I'm talking books, I'm talking iced drinks, I'm talking a hammock, people! THERE MIGHT EVEN BE A HAMMOCK-BASED NAP INVOLVED.  How about you? What's on your vagenda this lovely weekend?

Good evening, everyone! It's officially the weekend & I hope yours is going well so far. Btw, if anyone has a better name for these posts, lmk. I can't think of one that I really like, lol. It's still blazingly hot & humid, but we did have a thunderstorm blow through earlier. It was short, but had 60 mph winds. 😳 Thankfully, nothing too bad happened other than some downed trees. And I was still able to navigate my way to a chocolate raspberry milkshake that's chilling in the freezer for later. :) Here's a song that's been stuck in my head since we heard it watching a show. If you know which one, I'm all ears bc I can't remember. 😂 My plans tonight are watching the new Ghostbusters movie, drinking that milkshake, & (hopefully) calling it an early night. How about you?

  Our post is up at Backtalk, stop by to enjoy the fur faces and share your own: https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2022/06/fur-face-friday_17.html

  Morning, ya'll! How's your week going?  Is it getting to the point where I can say fuck this heat? Because FUCK this heat! Holy muggy out there! It is now at the point where I fear for any eye makeup I wear when walking from my car out to the grocery or anywhere outside for longer than 10 minutes.  Just a short one today but wanted to wish ya'll a great day and weekend. What do you guys have going on for the weekend?

Good day to you, groupthink! How I wish it was Friday, but apparently we have to make it through Thursday first. That was disappointing to realize, lol. It never hurts to have cute animals handy. Inhale the positive 🐺 pic.twitter.com/FZp8ZM9Nes — Wolf Conservation Center (@nywolforg) June 16, 2022 All inhaling is inside here again, but some relief from humidity is on the way soon, thank goodness, because I am exhausted. I got so little sleep last night that I should have given up & done laundry or something constructive. Part of it is on me because I forgot to turn off the screeching alarm for alerts when I upgraded my phone. Whoops! My plans are postponed & I'm having an easy day. There's another January 6th hearing to watch & a big batch of pasta salad to make & absolutely nothing else. It's too hot! ;) How about you? 

  Good morning, GT (or afternoon, evening, or night, depending on where you are ;)! What are you up to today?  It's another scorcher here today; we had a heat index of 108 yesterday (yuck!) and today, we have heat indices that'll be near 100 again. Homey and I were talking about biking downtown for breakfast this morning, but I'm thinking tomorrow might be the day for that. Maybe we'll do a mid-week, mid-morning TJ's/Costco run instead. Other than that, the plan is to cut up some tomatoes for bruschetta and then just stay cool! It might be time for the first afternudie of the year. ;) How about you? Are you in a heat wave, too? I hope everyone is staying comfortable and safe, no matter the weather!

  Good morning, GT. Happy Tuesday! I'm running on not enough sleep so my apologies if this is a little scrambled. I woke up way too early and instead of trying to go back to sleep I ended up watching videos on the WTF Reddit page. Bad choice.  Yesterday I found out that the couch I ordered is going to be delivered within the next two weeks. It wasn't supposed to come until the end of July so it's a nice surprise. My work/lounge room is coming together nicely. The walls have been painted and the flooring has been put down and all that needs to be done now is finish up the baseboards and trim around the doors. I'm excited to get the room finished.  What's going on with y'all? How are you doing today? 

  Good morning, groupthink! What Brad said, lol. Good grief, it's already miserable here in Nashville & I hope you're staying nice & cool today. Our heat index will top out around 110° this afternoon. If you're in the hot zone, please be careful out there. It's already so humid outside that breathing hurts. I'm hanging at the grocery waiting on my order so I thought I'd throw up a quick OT. Congrats to Jennifer Hudson on her EGOT last night. That's always exciting. And here's an extremely cool collection of plants in the succulent family, I think. These are gorgeous but apparently difficult to keep alive. No, this is not a bowl of cereal! It's actually a plant called Dinteranthus. It looks a lot like pebbles hence it's known as the pebble plant or living stones. pic.twitter.com/Pe3Szi7r45 — Riversong 🇨🇦♉♿😷🐈‍⬛☕🏳️‍🌈 (@Lumeena) June 11, 2022 The second January 6th hearing is this morning as well. Hopefully, I get my groceries in time ...

  Hey, beauties--it's time to talk books. Since it's Pride month, I thought I'd share a few lists for folks who are interested in reading more works by and/or about the LGBTQIA+ community. There are some fantastic looking books on these lists! I'm not usually a romance reader, but I might even pick up a romance book? What is this magic?! ( The Romantic Agenda looks goooo-ooood!) So, y'all know I love BookRiot. Every year, they put out a "Read Harder" list, with unexpected subgenres/requirements to fulfill. This June, they've put out a Pride Edition list of books by/about queer folks, that will also help you fulfill the requirements of the year's challenge. You can find that here: https://bookriot.com/read-harder-challenge-pride-edition/  NPR has a suggestions for Pride month reading here:  https://www.npr.org/2022/06/07/1101832632/what-to-read-pride-month GoodReads user has a MEGA list (72 titles!) here: https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2299-t...

  Good morning, GT, and happy Sunday! I woke up in a very good mood and I'm ready to enjoy the day. I'm having brunch with my mom and grandma later this morning and the rest of the day is going to be spent loafing around. I ended up seeing The Bob's Burger Movie yesterday and I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the show or even if you just like animated movies. It was cute, sweet, and made me cry a little bit. The songs in the movie were also quite fun.  After the movie I made an unexpected Costco run and picked up a few things to make summer more tolerable. I got two new pedestal fans that are workhorses and make a huge difference. They put my tower fan to shame. They aren't as nice to look at, but they keep me much cooler. I also got a great deal on a pool for Cosmo so keep an eye out for some pictures of him splashing around in the coming weeks.  How are y'all doing today? 

      Happy Saturday, everyone! What's on your vagenda this weekend? We are supposed to get some hot-hot-hot weather starting Sun. so, today's the day if we want to get yardwork done. The plan is to try to pull approximately 500,000 weeds. 😉  After that, I'll be trying to find some yoga for gardening, then showering, and taking it eeeeeeasy.  How about y'all? What are you up to this lovely June weekend?

  Good evening, everyone! Apologies for the two weeks off from these, but I'm trying to make them a regular thing. Hopefully, everyone who had a less than ideal start to the day is having a better night. I'm finally feeling human myself after many sparkling waters, a nap, & a shower. Pal's bringing home burritos, guacamole, & queso which ought to handle the rest, haha. Cheese cures many ills! My shower playlist landed on Sam Cooke &, even though this is a technically a Saturday song, it works. ;) Once the restorative food arrives, we're going to take an edible & finish Stranger Things & catch up on Hacks. How about you? 

  I got distracted, but the Fur Faces are here! Well actually at Backtalk, but you know what I mean. Stop by and say hi! https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2022/06/fur-face-friday_0691344643.html

  Aaaaaand FUCK this Friday already! I don't know if some planets are like making alignments or something but SO. MANY. THINGS. WRONG. already this morning!  I'm all together w/ family right now and my Grandma and sister visiting. I drive to a coffee shop early to get everyone breakfast, and get back in the car (not my car) and drives around the parking to exit and just DIES. No electric, nothing. Just poof gone. So I'm frantically trying to put the hazards on - NO hazard juice either. My Dad drives over to come help but I am BLOCKING people now and frantic standing outside apologizing to people annoyed as shit at my car almost blocking the exit.  He arrives, tells me to leave to start work, and he'll take care of it (Thank you, Dad Angel in Heaven). I grab all of the breakfast items after giving him some savior coffee/pastry at least, and leave in his car. Arrive home to see my Grandma naked in a towel pacing around with my sister and I'm like "What in the eve...

  Good morning, GT! Happy Thursday! I have been up since 4am and I feel surprisingly good despite the lack of sleep. I have a fairly busy day ahead of me but it's mostly reviewing paperwork and participating in a few case reviews that we do once a month, so I think I'll be ok.  I did receive notice yesterday that the city will be doing work on my street tomorrow and we will not have street access from 7am-2pm. A terrible time IMO since the school at the end of my block starts at 7:30am. Also, most people don't leave for work that early, right? My office doesn't open until 8:30am so having to leave before 7am would be a pain. Luckily, I can just work from home but not everyone can do that. Ok, I'm rambling a bit and I think that's due to the lack of sleep. I'll leave it there.  How are y'all doing today?   

Good morning, groupthink! It's another cloudy day here & I'm struggling with motivation after a stormy day of snacks & television. One great benefit of those torrential downpours is the pollen has been vanquished. Hopefully, they'll head towards Phoebe next. 🤞 It's so pleasant outside. Sadly, my streak of sleeping well ended but that was expected. It's definitely not helping with my energy levels, though. I did manage to get my least desirable job of the day handled--wishing my problematic cousin a happy 60th birthday. Milestones & special occasions are huge triggers for him & my fingers are crossed he makes it to his surprise party this weekend without any trouble. It seems like a terrible idea to spring this on an alcoholic who struggles with aging & big events, but, hey, what do I know?  To end, here's some cuteness. Our spare room's television is still covered in stickers from when our niece was this age. And one of Pal's guitars...

    Good morning, GT--happy Tue.! What are you up to today?  We had all kinds of rain and thunderstorms yesterday but today looks to be sunny and not too bad, temp-wise. So, you'd think I'd be out in the garden, launching a counterattack on the weeds that have already taken over but, instead, I'm going to be wrapping up some projects from work, just to get them done. Once I'm done with those, I'll just have one more meeting in late June and that's it until it's time to write syllabi in August. Woot!  So, I'm going to do my yoga, then find a coffeeshop where I can sit outside and work for a bit, while the weather is nice. How about y'all? What's up with you today? I hope you're getting some nice, June-like weather, too!

   Good morning, groupthink! I woke up way too early this morning & am trying to figure out my vagenda. It's also a SCOTUS opinion day which means any plans might get thrown out due to rage. Honestly, it would be nice to get rid of the sword of Damocles vibes we currently live with, you know? We'll see what happens but, in the meantime, we're expecting storms today & I really want to dig into a book & chill, but also need to adult a little first. Maybe. ;) Here's some cute content for your Monday morning. These kids found a theme & stuck with it, lol. i will never be funnier than our preschool naming its turtle: pic.twitter.com/x0EN9ZidO4 — priyanka mattoo (@naanking) June 2, 2022  What's happening with you today? Tell us about here.

  Good morning, GT! Happy Sunday.  I'm up a bit earlier than I would like to be but it's ok. I'm enjoying the silence that comes with an early weekend morning. Cosmo is sleeping next to me and I can hear the faint sounds of birds chirping. It's nice.  I don't have much on my agenda for the day. It's going to be a day of mostly loafing around watching tv, but I will be doing a bit of cooking later. I'm thinking I'll make some version of pasta primavera and have my grandma over to eat. She's been feeling a bit down lately so I think she would appreciate having time to visit.  Other than that, not much is going on and I'm a-ok with that. What's going on with y'all today?

  Good morning, GT, and happy Sat.! What are y'all up to today? Something fantastic, I hope? I crashed out at about 9 pm last night and slept through till 6:30, so that's pretty good. I woke up and got some INTENSE kitten cuddles from Buster, lol. One of the gals who cat-sat for us said he's the cuddliest cat she's ever met and I was like, Oh, yeah, I can see how this might be a bit much if you're not used to it. :) He is a lover and a fighter but, mostly, he's a lover. Anyway, I did a little morning meditation and had a moment of meditation magic when it started raining right at the end, while I was thinking about being home and summer break as a fresh start. I love that! It's supposed to be cool and rainy all weekend, which just sounds amazing to me. Anyway! How about you? Is it rainy where you are? Are you getting some summer heat and sunshine? What are you up to this weekend?

  Hello, GT and happy start of the weekend.  I thought I’d post a quick OT for anyone who is spending this Friday afternoon/evening with us. Today has been a pretty good day. I ended up going to the movies this morning and finally saw Everything Everywhere All at Once. I enjoyed every minute of the movie and it exceeded my expectations. There were plenty of WTF moments and the underlying story/message was really nice. I cried A LOT more than I ever thought I would for this movie. Highly recommend if you haven’t seen it.  In other news, I got my car back! I just picked it up about an hour ago and I’m so glad I have it back. I can go do things without having to borrow a car and fit things around another person's schedule. This also means I can go into the office again. I’m still new to this location so I need to pop in from time to time to show my face and meet people.  Anyway, enough about my day. How are y’all doing? How are you spending this Friday night? 

You know what your Friday needs? Fur Faces! So come get some and share your own! https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2022/06/fur-face-friday.html

  Morning y’all! I’ve been away on work trips and could not for the life of me figure out how to do this via mobile lol. It was so frustrating!  Alas I figured it out! How are you guys? Oh I’ll start out with a big fuck it to the NRA and their cronies. Fuck ‘em all and their obsession with weapons over lives.  Also fuck incredibly rude work people. I’m four months into a new job and have had to direct chat message two IT people. They saw my messages and just did not respond.  This new job is okay but they have already made some mistakes with my role and sent me the wrong laptop for three months. And now stuff like that is making me want to start looking elsewhere bc it’s a massive firm that is all surprisingly unorganized internally with stuff and that mistake shouldn’t have happened from day 1. So it’s been weird. Also many many of them are corporate robots who seem to only be friendly about work initiatives then get weird when I talk about NORMAL non work things. T...

Happy Thursday Gang. This one's short as I'm off for a nap. I managed to keep the pup off the pool cover this morning so I feel like that's a good omen for how the rest of today will shake out. Other than that there's not much going on here. What's doing with you?

  Good morning, groupthink! It's an early one here it's going to thunderstorm later. I'm ready for a change of pace plus the lower temps & humidity. Probably no singing in it, though. ;) Here's a mid-week laugh at Tuckum's expense. So not ready. 🍿 Oh he is NOT ready https://t.co/6SuiekFUCP — Jorts (and Jean) (@JortsTheCat) June 1, 2022 Speaking of not ready, I was actually sleeping really well this morning until one of Pal's coworkers who lives near us lost his keys which meant Pal had to drive him to work waaay too early. I feel badly for Pal bc this guy is new & also racist. Long story short--he invited him to play video games with some work friends last weekend where he shouted racial slurs & got booted. Now, Pal has to be trapped with him on the way to work & the guy is getting fired today but doesn't know, obviously. Will Pal also have to bring him home? That's gonna be so uncomfortable. So, that's my morning so far, lol. It...