What's everyone up to right now?

[arewethereyet]

Odds and ends around the house. Laundry, getting stuff ready to make a roast, refilled the birdfeeders out front, hung a new flag as mine was getting pretty faded.

Probably a good thing I postponed my trip. Yesterday the check engine light came on in my car and it wasn't running very smoothly. Luckily, when husband and I went to have it checked at the auto parts store, it just shows it needs new spark plugs. That's a relief 'cause that's a cheap fix. Added some stuff to the gas to clean out injectors and a bunch of other enginy things. Now if only the plugs get put in and don't lay on the kitchen counter for an age.

Currently listening to the dryer thump and bump as it's got another load of Harley's toys in it.

[Angrboda]

Relaxing in Starbucks with an iced pumpkin cream chai. I seldom pop for fancy drinks anymore, so this is a nice treat.

[Gwaithmir]

Enjoying morning coffee and setting a timer for my next dose of meds. I checked my blood glucose level. It went from 118 to 140 during the night. 

[Angrboda]

Watching baseball. I spent all day yesterday returning a Dutch oven to Amazon. I should have heeded the warning on the listing that it was a frequently returned item.

[Angrboda]

Watching Sunday Night Football. I've been agonizing over buying a 6-quart stainless steel Dutch oven / stock pot -- it seems the dimensions of a lot of shit listed on Amazon are wrong.

I settled on one that is inexpensive and one of the smallest of the lot. I keep thinking, "buy extra so you'll have enough" without actually knowing whether what I've chosen will be enough or not and leaning toward letting my anxiety drive me down the path of buying more than I need. That's how I ended up with a house full of stuff to begin with. I can't help feeling anxious about it, even if in my head it makes sense to just go with the smallish one.

[Jackalope]

I started looking into getting Lithuanian citizenship via my paternal great-grandfather, but my progress had been stymied by a few confounding factors: nobody knew a much about him other than he returned alone to Vilnius some time after my grandfather was born. I put away the project, figuring I could pick it up later if I learned anything new.

It turns out my sister has been working on it independently and she's done almost all the legwork, she found all the necessary documents, had the necessary translations done. There's relatively little left for me to do.

[Silver]

Disputing a recent Uber ride. The driver didn't turn off the ride after dropping me off, so the price of the charge kept increasing.

[Angrboda]

Trying to warm up to eating something for breakfast. For some reason I just don't feel like eating this morning.

[Ravenshire]

I've been listening my way through Iron Maiden's studio albums, in order of release. I kinda lost track of them from the early 90s until the mid-00s, so there are a few I've listened to for the first time. Bruce Dickinson's voice is the best fit for the band, but I'm thinking Paul Di'Anno would likely have done just as well had he stayed with the band. The Blaze Bayley guy was a blight on the name of Iron Maiden, and I'm very glad Dickinson and the rest of the band were able to reconcile and move forward.

I think their best work was back in the 80's with "The Number of the Beast," "Piece of Minnd," and "Powerslave," but their self titled debut and the follow-up "Killers" were no slouches either. Still, it seems that each album has it's moments, and even the worst of them aren't all bad.

[Jackalope]

I've been listening my way through Iron Maiden's studio albums, in order of release. I kinda lost track of them from the early 90s until the mid-00s, so there are a few I've listened to for the first time. Bruce Dickinson's voice is the best fit for the band, but I'm thinking Paul Di'Anno would likely have done just as well had he stayed with the band. The Blaze Bayley guy was a blight on the name of Iron Maiden, and I'm very glad Dickinson and the rest of the band were able to reconcile and move forward.

I think their best work was back in the 80's with "The Number of the Beast," "Piece of Minnd," and "Powerslave," but their self titled debut and the follow-up "Killers" were no slouches either. Still, it seems that each album has it's moments, and even the worst of them aren't all bad.

There are some good songs on the two Bayley era albums, but yeah I am not a fan of that era at all. There's a few really good tunes (Sign of the Cross, The Clansman, etc), and some awful ones. The first three post-reunion albums (Brave New World, Dance of Death, and A Matter of Life and Death) are pretty solid.

I don't listen to the early albums that often anymore, I've heard them a thousand times. I think they really peaked with Powerslave - but - Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son hold up really well.