Wednesday, July 08, 2020

Arthur Likes His Nip

My cats communicate with me more and more, nonverbally for the most part. Arthur was wanting something: no food, not milk, not petting. I gave him a pile of catnip and he was happy.  Huh!
Today was a day mostly around the house, but on the way back from my morning walk I stopped by QFC to get crusts (they were out at Target).  On impulse I bought a bake-at-home berry pie (as well as 4 crusts). It is tasty enough, but way too much sugar and the top crust does nothing but add carbo. It was a worthy experiment but I'll not repeat it.
As I sat on my step, Laura and Alex's mom walked by and we chatted from a distance. They referred to "Ginny's Cave" - it seems she has worked a special space in their garden to rest in. She is truly now a neighborhood cat!
I continue to work on Toastmasters Area Directorship. It is straightforward management of a lot of details, plus trying to contact groups that seem to have fallen off the planet. Learning!
Mary Nametka sent an update of her class action about VA overtime pay. She sees it as more delay but I see that they're setting a trial date.
Low Bono Section set up a slack and publicized it on the listserve; the first responses were "What's Slack?"

Tuesday, July 07, 2020

Tuesday

On the walk:
My Friends Grow Gift-Wrapped Tomatoes

Sexually Active Succulents
I was a little concerned about this evening's speech at Toastmasters, because it was put together in a hurry (we were short of speakers) and it involved the sort-of-adult situations of my summer program in Salzburg. Everyone liked it, and I got useful feedback which I will apply next time I give it. I have decided that since I'm in multiple clubs, I will habitually give the same speech in multiple clubs to practice learning from evaluations.

During this evening's Toastmasters meeting, more than one person messaged me privately to ask whether it was odd that their timely-filed federal tax return was not done processing. All I really know on the subject is that there must be MASSIVE backups in the system due to COVID but that seemed to reassure people.

Sandy replied to my message thanking her for the invitation to the Sunday Hobbit salon via zoom. We seem to have similar thoughts about the people who need to talk all the time, and the usefulness of side channel chat.