He Came Back

I saw him today...that gray tabby tom cat that put the Incarnation of Evil into the hospital.  He came up into the yard, bold as you please, and started drinking from the deer trough.  I stepped out the back door and told him to get out of my yard.  He ran a few steps, then turned around and looked at me.  

"All the way out!"  I said, advancing menacingly, and he disappeared into the woods behind the house.  

"And don't come back!" I shouted after him, but I know he will.  

That was my excitement for the morning, unless you count my fire choosing today to be stubborn.  I don't know what its problem was, but it just did not want to light.  I finally got it to burning well, but by that time, it had warmed up enough that I didn't even need it.  

Even so, I refilled my wood box in anticipation of tomorrow's cold, which it's not even supposed to get out of the 30s, and possibly down into the teens by Monday morning.  

In other news, the last of Brennan's gifts arrived today, and they are now safely wrapped and tucked under the tree.  She's been wanting to get into crochet, so I bought her a set of hooks and some yarn from Knit Picks, and a ball winder and yarn spool from Amazon.  My sister said she's going to look for some books to send her, so she ought to be set.  Her gifts are all done, but I'm still waiting on the last thing I ordered for Cody to arrive, and that will be it for Christmas shopping.  

Anyway, after that I sat down in front of the TV and barely moved for the rest of the day.  Well, first I sat down in front of the computer, because I signed up for my Colonial America course on Hillsdale College.  I watched the first lecture --which is really more like a documentary than a lecture -- then aced the quiz.  By the time I finished that, it was almost time for the march on, so I decided to wait until tomorrow to start the next episode. 

For some reason, Hulu wasn't able to get CBS, but I don't know why.  It kept showing that message that says we're having trouble playing this channel, and I thought for a moment I was going to have to re-up my Paramount + just to see the game.  I didn't, though.  I was able to sign in to the CBS Sports app with my Hulu account, so I watched the march on, the pregame show, then watched the Army-Navy game and thought for a moment Blake Horvath had completely forgotten how to play football, but they pulled it out in the end and Navy sang second.  

I will have to say, Navy also won the uniform battle this year.  Those helmets they were wearing were absolutely awesome.  Army looked like they would disappear in a snowstorm -- which actually happened back in 2017.  It snowed, they wore solid white, and at times you couldn't even see them.  It was hilarious. 

As soon as the ball game was over, I went to Apple TV and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas, which is free this weekend.  

And I finished my day by watching A Muppet Christmas Carol,

which we'd watched on Thanksgiving, but it's too good to only watch once.   

Just FYI, if you have Disney + and want to watch the version with that song in it -- you know the one they cut out because they thought it'd be too heavy for little kids -- you can go to the Extras tab and select Full Length Version.  It has the When Love Is Gone song in it. 

OK, that's about it for what I watched on TV -- and I do more than just watch TV.  Really, I do.  But once the kids are grown and gone, and I'm not at work, there really isn't much to talk about, unless you want to hear about me changing the sheets on the bed and doing laundry.  

Oh, I can show you this.  I bought myself a new wax melter last time I went to the store, because my old one had broken.  It was pretty old, after all.  Somewhere online, I don't remember where, I saw that to get the old wax out, you can put cotton balls in it while it's still melted.  Then once the wax hardens, it'll pop right out.  

Sometimes, these life hacks are just dumb, but this one sounded good, so I gave it a try. 

After a few moments, I pulled the cotton balls out and the wax came out with them, slick as a whistle. 

And it left me a nice, clean bowl for the next time.  

That's definitely a trick I'll be using again. 

And finally, more playing around with AI -- this time with Chat GPT.  

 This one looks more like a painting than the others, and I think I like that better.