Groupthink

  Hello, GT! Happy Sunday! I did not sleep that great last night so I'm feeling a bit tired this morning. I could have slept in, but I have too much going through my mind to sleep. I also think I ate too many pumpkin seeds and my tummy is not happy about it.  Today I'm having lunch with my mom and brother which should be nice. We are going to a mediterranean place and I'm so looking forward to digging into a falafel pita and some spicy feta. Yum! I need to go take a shower so I'm keeping this short. How are y'all doing today?

I’ve had a doozy of a week. Istanbul kedi tax. I started feeling feverish on Tuesday. Istanbul is hot and humid, so no big deal. However, it got uncomfortable enough that I checked my temperature in the afternoon and it was almost 100°. By the evening it spiked to 101.5°. Not a huge fever, but it was worrying because I had an embryo from an IVF treatment transferred. The lone embryo I got out of it. Fevers are bad.  We were able to figure out that Turkiye uses the British name for Tylenol and get some. The fever stayed low-grade the next day. On Wednesday I tested negative for Covid and it was mostly just fever and listlessness. Started coughing the next morning and took another Covid test. BIG OL’ POSITIVE. I’m the only one who got it. So I’ve been holed up in my husband’s childhood bedroom for days. Fever has been gone for two days, cough stopped today. Still testing super positive. My isolation will probably end the same day I can take a pregnancy test. I can’t imagine that the ...

  Good morning, GT! What's on your vagenda this weekend? After a couple of beautiful days, the temps start ramping back up today. I told Homey to tell his brother to invite us swimming today and tomorrow, lol--hopefully, we get some pool time on these hot days. Tomorrow, I have plans to hit the trails at 7 for a beat-the-heat walk with my bestie (followed by pastry and coffee! YUM!). Other than that, it'll probably be lazing indoors or finding shady spots outside to laze some more. How about you?  

Good evening, groupthink! I hope you've had a nice Friday. It's been much cooler & rainy here. We needed it badly & it made the afternoon very relaxing. I did almost all of the laundry & threw together an ice box key lime pie. Pal's playing video games tonight so I plan to watch movies & eat some of that pie while I'm at it. There's a gin & tonic in my future too.  It's also Beyoncé Day for those who celebrate. ;) I haven't had a chance to listen to most of it yet, but I'm excited to this weekend. Don't underestimate the power of great music! Lol. My 1st wife never liked Beyonce until she was working a job at Coachella 2018. She watched the entire concert on mdma. It was like she had a religious conversion experience. And then a week or so later she ended our 9 year marriage lol — Ben Collins (@BDavisCollins) July 29, 2022 What are you up to tonight?  

  The Fur Faces have arrived at Backtalk, so stop by to say hi and share your own: https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2022/07/fur-face-friday_0716062995.html

  Hey ya'll! I was without connection last Friday - apologies!  How was your week? Any fun plans for the weekend?  My Fuck It goes to Trump who is golfing while he should be in jail right now. Why again is he just walking around carefree? Ugh!  That is the main one for this week?  How about you? Happy Friday!

  Good morning, GT! Happy Thursday! I woke up pretty early today and I'm not even upset about it. I slept very well and feel rested. It's such a nice feeling. It also helps that today is my Friday and I have a three day weekend ahead of me. Having every other Friday off is so nice.  I have ZERO meetings today so I'm going to take advantage of the free time to do some of the work I usually don't have time to do. Mostly reviewing client charts to make sure my clinicians are completing safety plans and such. I also have a new staff starting in two weeks so I need to start preparing for her onboarding.  Other than that, not much is going on in my world. How about you all? How is everyone doing today?

  Good morning, groupthink! Yesterday, I planned for a stormy, chill day & loafed around waiting for a rainy day that never materialized. Boo! Of course, it's happening today when I have a full morning scheduled. Oh, well. At least it won't be a thousand degrees, lol. This heat wave break is quite nice. Here's an incredibly disturbing but important read. For the 100th time, you cannot reform this.  28 women held at an Indiana jail are suing after guards gave the keys to their cells to incarcerated men in exchange for a $1000 bribe, allowing the men to rape and assault the women. https://t.co/jw6rQIN4Uy — Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) July 26, 2022 To end with something lighter, this account is great. "Wealth is like sea-water, the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame" - Arthur Schopenhauer pic.twitter.com/CnLBkptZBp — Ethics in Bricks (@EthicsInBricks) July 11, 2022 Okay, that's it for me. I'm off to dig out my...

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/26/trump-justice-investigation-january-6/  https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-investigated-by-department-of-justice-as-part-of-jan-6-criminal-probe?source=articles&via=rss   Hopefully, one of those works for everyone w/o a paywall. :D

  Good morning, GT! How is this Tuesday treating you?  I woke up a bit too early but was able to go back to sleep for a few more hours. I feel pretty well rested. My day should be pretty light which I'm looking forward too. The last two weeks had been insanely busy and I also had the added anxiety of being the on-call LPS last week. It's nice to be able to let my brain turn off a bit.  I'm going to take advantage of the down time and slightly cooler temps and spend some time outside in my hammock. I used to use it almost everyday and now it's been a few weeks since I've used it. I may also make some lemonade since my lemon tree is giving lots of lemons again.  Anyway, enough about me. How are all you doing?

  Good morning, GT, and happy Mon.! What's up with you today? It finally cooled off here--we have a high in the upper 70s today. 🙌 What a relief! Homey and I already got a nice walk in and did a little yardwork. I'm going to my brother's to help with the girls later this morning. One of them is walking and saying "Dada" and the other is still crawling but I've heard she's saying "Mama." So much happens so quickly these days!  After that, I'm going to come home and work on a couple of chairs I've been refinishing, then sit outside with a cold drink, and read. These nice days are so precious, so I always feel like I have to make the most of them. How about you? What are you up to today?

  Good morning, GT! Happy Sunday! Cosmo woke me up early again but I feel pretty good and well rested so I'm not mad about it. It's a nice, cool morning so I'm enjoying it while it lasts. Yesterday it was only in the low 80s and I didn't even have to use my A/C. Hopefully today will be the same.  Yesterday, I made Cosmo the absolute worst dog biscuits I've ever made. They turned out awful and I'm ashamed to say I made them. I've made these biscuits dozens of times before and I have no idea what went wrong. They were tough and chewy when usually they are nice and crunchy. They ended up in the trash. Such a shame.  Anyway, I'm craving some ice cream so I think I'm going to go buy some black cherry ice cream and sugar cones to have for the week. Yum! How are y'all doing today? How are you closing out the weekend? 

  You guys. It's gonna be a hot-hot one here today, with heat indices in what Homey's taken to calling "triple diggies." I need all the TV and movie recs, esp. if they are set somewhere cold. My plan is to drink a huge ass iced coffee and have an afternudie with all the cold water and cold TV and that's it. It might be smoothies for dinner.  How about you? Are you going to be able to enjoy your weekend, or will you be joining me in the Sweaty Betty club?

  Good evening, groupthink! Welcome to the weekend. :) I'm created this post early & I'm hoping the day went as planned--a little being constructive, fewer ants, & a lot of Only Murders In The Building. I sunk in a 6 am walk (solo, Ruby refused to budge lol) to process last night's Jan. 6th hearing. That was a lot. Related--here's a song that's been stuck in my head. ;) We're having spaghetti & staying in tonight. What are you up to?

  Hello everyone! Happy Friday! I didn't see a Fuck It Friday up so I thought I'd go ahead at put one up. I'm going to have to keep this short since I have some work to catch up on.  My only fuck it for today is fuck tummy issues. My stomach has been feeling a bit uneasy all week and I suspect it's tied to the anxiety I was feeling over Cosmo being sick and a few other things that have been going on. I'm looking forward to getting some down time this weekend to relax and take my mind off stress.  How are y'all doing? What are your fuck it's?

  Good morning & I hope this gif helps you cool down a bit! It was 80° when I woke up at 6 am & all the rain from last night missed us. Boo! And I have ants in my kitchen. Double boo! There were just a few near the sink, but this stops now.  So, I'm off the the hardware store for ant killing supplies in a minute & thought I'd throw up a quick OT first. Maybe I'll wait long enough to grab a burrito for lunch because I remain very committed to not using the oven, lol. Tonight is BLT's for dinner & emotional support ice cream for the primetime Jan. 6th hearing this evening. How's your Friday eve going? :)

Good morning everyone! Today is being sponsored by heroic amounts of coffee here. Taking cannabis tincture when it's already past your bedtime is a bad idea for your next morning. I slept great, though. 😂 So, I'm on my 3rd cuppa & still clearing cobwebs. At least I didn't have anywhere important to be first thing. Here's some neat space news. :) This is the first flower ever grown entirely in space. (Credit: Scott Kelly/NASA) pic.twitter.com/Gm8QflzAii — World and Science (@WorldAndScience) July 12, 2022 And here is a very cool hotel. It looks so peaceful & cozy! Rogner Bad Bumau Hotel, Austria. pic.twitter.com/wY0LA6CdDT — Unique Building (@UniqueBuilding5) July 18, 2022 My first task of the day is covering myself in bugspray & sunscreen while I pick blackberries. The near drought conditions here have been rough on them, but hopefully the deer left enough for a cobbler. 🤞  How's your day shaping up? I hope everyone is staying cool!

Good morning, GT, and happy Tue.!  Did you know, today is National Daiquiri Day? It couldn't come at a better time--it is hot, hot, hot here this week (though, we are very lucky to have a/c!). A cold drink tonight sounds like just the thing. I already did an early morning Target run today. Otherwise, I plan to stay indoors as much as possible today. (I ran to Target to buy blue ink pens for my postcard writing campaign, only, when I got there, they had some really cute candy-theme colored pens? and soooo.... that's what I got :D). So, what are you up to today? And what do you like to drink on a hot day? I'm not too much of an alcohol drinker but I love a cold kombucha (I'm partial to Brew Dr.'s Love flavor--lavender and jasmine. Yum!). So, whether you like a daiquiri, a kombucha, or a cold water, let us know. :)

Hello gang and Happy Monday from the shire! I arrived last week and I've been laying low recuperating. Young Finn is having a ball running in the fields and through the house. He's never been in a place this big and it took him a while to get his head around it. Mr is busy AF. It is amazing how quickly the weeds take over. I'm going slow and resting a lot but enjoying it all and so very pleased to be home. The air smells of hay & the sea. I could just cry every time I get a whiff. What a long strange trip it's been. How are things looking in your world today?

 Hey, readers--I know it's late in the day but I def. owe GT a Lit. Talk so here we go! And, if you don't get here until Mon. or Tue., that's ok, too! Let's do it. 1) What book did you most recently finish? 2) What book are you currently reading? 3) What's next on your "to be read" list? 4) Are you looking for any book recommendations? Do you have any recs for the rest of the readers here?  5) A quick, no pressure check in: if you set a summer reading goal, how are you doing on achieving that? (And, if you didn't, that's cool, too!)

Good morning! Happy Sunday!  How are all you lovely people doing today?  I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather the last two days but I’m pretty sure it’s just allergies. I woke up this morning feeling like crud, but I feel much better after taking a shower. I do have some lingering sleepiness but I’m hoping that goes away soon.  Yesterday, I gave Cosmo a bath and I didn’t realize just how much he is shedding. SO much hair came off of him during his bath that I thought there would be nothing left. I brushed him after and I still filled a bag with his hair. He also had a couple flees which I expected but still hated seeing. Every year he gets flees during the summer and despite my best efforts to keep them away it still happens. So frustrating.  Anyway, enough with my complaining. How are y'all? How is this Sunday looking for you?

  Hey, loves, happy Saturday! What are you up to this weekend?  Today, Homey and I are biking downtown to go to the farmers market--my first of the season! I hope to find some cute art and good veggies but, at the very least, I'll grab some fancy coffee and pastry. :D Yum! Other than that, the weekend for me will be spent doing chores--refinishing a chair and cleaning. I also want to put together some music playlists for my home yoga practice. So, I'm wondering, what music are you loving lately? (Even if it's not yoga-y, other folks will be interested, I'm sure!)  Personally, I've been finding myself reaching back into the '90s for my music lately: TLC, Liz Phair, Lush, Madder Rose... pretty sure Yellowjackets triggered this intense nostalgia. 😁 How about you? What are you listening to lately? Any musical recs you want to share or that you're searching for? And what's your weekend looking like?

It's finally Friday night! This week felt long & also went by quickly, somehow. I'm glad it's over because that means we're one week closer to Fall, lol. We voted early today & the ballot was the longest I've ever seen. Fingers crossed at least one of the three districts Nashville has been divided into stays blue. 🤞 It feels good to have that done &, even though we had tacos for lunch, we are taking Dorothy's advice & picking up pizza, garlic knots, & salad for dinner. It's too hot to cook. That's my excuse. ;) Did you know that Rue McClanahan was married 6 times? I learned that true to Blanche fact this morning.  I hope everyone is staying cool & having a nice Friday. Pal's playing video games while I catch up on some shows & then we'll finish The Old Man. It's a good spy thriller, but stressful. Then, it's time for our favorite, What We Do In The Shadows. Not a bad night, plus I finally took a nap. How about...

  Have some fur faces up at Backtalk for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to share your own as well! https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2022/07/fur-face-friday_15.html

 Hey guys! Happy Friday! Soooo mine is starting out amazing! I have to stay w my Gma for a few days to help my sister pack since her place is empty now but now Gma’s router hates me so the password listed on the router is not working. So I think someone has changed it who visited perhaps and now I’m at a Starbucks with 34,793 people around. But I have to go for another meeting in Wi-Fi hell so FUCK router nonsense!  How was your week? 

Bonjour groupthink & Happy Bastille Day! Go forth and have some nice cheese or pastries today. :) It's almost the weekend & I am up early after Pal came home extremely grumpy about getting trapped at a work thing last night. It sometimes sucks to work at a company that is extremely social when you just wanna come home after a long day. Before you feel too bad for him, the work event was a showing of But I'm A Cheerleader at our local indy theater. 😂 I'm also pissed his boss is asking employees to go sit in a tiny theater during a major Covid surge--a ton of people are already out bc of it. That is just dumb imo. Here's a cool thing by a cool band. Remember during summer 2020 when whiny conservatives got upset with Rage & Tom Morello was all, what machine did you think we were talking about? Lawnmowers? Lol. While MAGA is melting down about RATM being back and them being part of the “machine” they have already donated nearly half a million from their first ...

 Good morning, lovies--how are you all doing? What's on your schedule for the day? We are having a week of nice weather so yesterday, we repainted the deck and today I'll be refinishing some chairs. Pretty easy, breezy here. How about you? I heard this song this morning and it was a great kickoff to my day, so I thought I'd share it with y'all:

 We are heading right into the second heat wave of this summer and I'm already preparing what we'll eat so that it's tasty, on the light side and preferably doesn't heat up the kitchen too much. I've already started the prep for stuff that is nice to eat cold/at room temp but needs e.g. the oven to get cooked yesterday because we're not going to hit 30°C/85°F before tomorrow. And as basically all of Europe is heading into the same high temps (for their region), I wanted to share some of my favourite things to eat while it's fucking hot and ask what your food strategies are. Because while there is always gelato, I tend to feel sick when I eat sweet things when I'm actually hungry. Not to say I don't eat any - here's the proof - but more as a treat than a meal. Gelato at Lago di Lugano Granità alla mandorla in Camogli Gelato at a work event I'll put my recipes in the comments and would love to hear what you make in situations like these. Just c...

  Good Morning, GT! Happy Monday! The weekend went by way to fast and I'm not ready for the work week. I'm hoping today will be a fairly light day. I've decided to WFH and go to the office tomorrow instead. I'm not in the mood to put up with traffic.  I have an early training to attend this morning so I'm going to keep this short.  How is everybody doing today? 

  Good morning, GT! Happy Sunday! I woke up early so I got a jump start on my day. I made Cosmo his chicken for the week and I've picked a bunch of lemons and peaches. I need to do a bit of cleaning up this morning before I head out to pick up my brother and have lunch with my mom.  Later today I need to make the two HelloFresh meals that have been sitting in my fridge since my next delivery comes tomorrow. Summer temps makes it hard for me to want to cook so I may need to reduce my weekly meal delivery size. I don't want to waste any food.  Anyway, enough about me. How are you doing today? What's on your agenda for the day?

 Happy weekend, sweets--I hope you're all taking care and kicking butt, as needed. :) I'm going to keep this one short: what's up with you this weekend? We are supposed to have a gorgeous weekend here so my plan for today is to work my butt off outdoors and end the day with a big, frozen drink (rose + blueberry lemonade + ice, all into a blender). I hope to be ever so slightly buzzed by the time I climb into the shower tonight. This last week, and the last couple of months, can suck it and I'm totally looking forward to a night of relaxation after a day of sweat. Tomorrow, I hope to wrap up any outdoor work that needs done and then get some good hammock time in. And I wouldn't mind another drink. 😉 How about you?

Good evening & Happy Friday! My new plan is to start scheduling these posts so, on nights when I can't participate, it's still a regular thing. Sorry for last week--Stranger Things kept us glued to the screen, lol.  Speaking of ST, here's a song from the latest season that's been stuck in my head & I couldn't be happier. Here's some Friday evening Elon hopes you don't notice news that wasn't all that surprising to hear & also a relief. In a new filing, Elon Musk's lawyer says he is "terminating the merger agreement." pic.twitter.com/AZRQvGWki4 — David Gura (@davidgura) July 8, 2022 It's still 100° & miserable here, but I'm making sheet pan fajitas for dinner anyway. We've eaten so many salads & sandwiches that it was time for a change. Plus, there's some Simply limeade for a quick & easy margarita too. ;) That's pretty much our only plan so far, lol. How about you? Tell us what you're up to t...

  The Feather Faces have taken over and claimed top billing! https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2022/07/fur-face-friday_0429442577.html

  Hey ya'll! Sorry it's a bit late today. How was your week so far? I got back from Mexico on Wed and I made my dream come true - I swam with the gentle giants - the whale sharks! I am still on a high from it and even though I lost my GoPro I was able to see them in all of their full sweet, majestic glory. Despite them looking like slow movers, I had to swim with all of my might to keep up with them. My friend was able to get a few shots luckily and my GoPro might still be on at the bottom of the ocean actually bahahha.  But from this experience I have no current personal fuck its - just grateful to be able to do that and for them to allow us to swim alongside of them.  Here are a few shots:  But absolute still ongoing fuck its about the state of this country SMH - even out there in Mexico some people I met from other countries were like, "What is happening with the US?!" SMH.  How was your week and do you have weekend plans? Happy Friday!

Good morning, groupthink! We're almost to the weekend which is appreciated. Short weeks are nice, but there's a lot to cram in, especially when it's too hot. Our heat index is hovering around the feels like 115°. Yuck. Today is for meal planning & grocery ordering & I'm tempted to buy a bunch of Popsicles & vitamins & nothing else, lol. Notable news this morning. Uk > US https://t.co/PXC00GbCes — Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) July 7, 2022 He's resigning! Wow. Teach us your ways, please. Less exciting, but maybe helpful news: did you know if you have Prime, you are eligible for a year of free GrubHub premium as of Wednesday? Another cool thing I found out as a result of this is we have a locally owned delivery service that only charges a $5 fee & doesn't rip off local restaurants. Even better! And we're using it to order Thai tonight. :) Okay, that's enough from me while I make iced coffee & begin the food stuff. How about y...

Happy Wednesday folks. If I were livestreaming this you'd hear an indignant pup yelping away. Apparently it is an outrage that he is not allowed to bite me in the butt. Repeatedly. OK pal, time-out for you lol. I have to go to Target. I need allergy meds and swim bottoms. It will turn into a 2 hour, one hundred dollar expedition but such is the nature of a Target run. What's going on in your world today?

Good morning or afternoon out there, groupthink! Here's a quick OT for us. I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend whether it was a super-sized or normal one. Ours was fairly quiet with one meetup with friends & lots of eating. I think I consumed more meat this weekend than I usually eat in 2 months. And that's the only American thing we did, lol. Our neighbors actually took it easy with the fireworks for once, too. Hidden benefit of inflation? 🤷‍♀️ We enjoyed the reprieve, regardless, lol. pic.twitter.com/ZVx1k9sbGb — Jerry Saltz (@jerrysaltz) July 2, 2022 I have to brave the heat & humidity to run errands & tackle some work, but will pop in later. Take it away! :) 

Good Monday morning! Many of us have the day off for the US holiday. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, I hope it's a great one. I have had a craving for garbage cereal so I'm about to dive into a bowl of Apple Jacks.. or maybe Froot Loops. I'd love to know which sugary cereal you'd choose if the craving hit.

  Good morning, GT! Happy Sunday! Today is going to be pretty busy for me. Well, busy for a Sunday. I was lazy yesterday so this morning I need to make the pasta salad I'm taking to my cousins party. After that, Cosmo and I are off to get him his vaccinations. I'm hoping that goes smoothly and doesn't take forever. My cousins party isn't until 3pm so I'll probably have a bit of time to kill. I may take Cosmo for a drive to the beach if we have the time. He's going to deserve it after getting his shots.   Anyway, enough about me and my day. How is everyone doing today? 

  Hey, GT--I hope you are getting a long weekend. If you're in the US, you might feel like celebrating this weekend... or, you might not. I just want to remind you that, wherever you are, however you're feeling, it is ok! Even if people around you don't get it, it's ok 💜. Do what's right for you. So! What are you up to this weekend? One of my aunties is visiting my mom so I'm going to visit with her tonight. Sun., I'll be walking with a friend and hopefully having dinner (AND SWIMMING WITH) my BIL's crew.  I also got a box FULL of postcards that I need to fill out and address to get progressive people out to damn vote this fall. So, I'll be working on those this weekend. If you're able and interested, you can get postcards, a script, and a list of names and addresses here: https://www.turnoutpac.org/postcards/ (Heads up, though, they provide all that stuff but you have to buy the stamps to mail them!) They don't need to be sent out until Oc...

  Hop over to backtalk to say hi to the Fur Faces and share your own: https://backtalkvillage.blogspot.com/2022/07/fur-face-friday.html

  What’s up y’all! Does PMS ever get bad for you? Like you almost actively seek out looking for a fight with anything internally??? Lol some months I don’t have many symptoms and some I swear I would mouth off to a tree that I almost ran into. Or if someone just looked at me wrong I inside turn into a flaming ball of fire and then I’m like wtf is wrong with me?! Yeah so I’m hoping today that goes the fuck away bc it’s annoying!  I am off to Mexico today with my sister for a few days of eating delicious food and whale shark swimming (weather permitting) so my hormones need to get their shit together!  Aside from the minor fuck it’s, I know we can all say a resounding gigantic Fuck You to the pathetic group of shitbags we have making decisions for all women in this country. We are now the embarrassment to other countries who have graciously reached out with sympathies.  Never in my life did I think the US would become so screwed up they’d make guns more valuable and im...