Nerd Pride Radio

I believe in positive affirmation. Focus on the good things and you're happier, right? So I encourage people to use this thread to post things that they are thankful for that have happened in the past 24 to 48 hours. It doesn't matter how slight or trivial it may seem. If it's something that made you happy, then post about it. I'm going to try to post something every day.

Also- please no backhanded not-happy posts. This is for something that truly brings you joy, not "this happened, but then THIS happened and I don't know what to do."

So yesterday I was stopped in the store by someone who really, really loved my hoodie. The same hoodie my wife hates, but I keep wearing because people stop me in the store to tell me how much they love it:

In the last 48 hours, I have found opportunities to play 8 different board/card games. One of which was completely new to me.

Oh my God that hoodie is amazing!!!

Yesterday I used my youngest son's phone, which inexplicably has a Philadelphia area code, and called Jason/Daki. It went to voicemail so I immediately called back. He answered the second time, at which point I played Last Christmas through the phone and my kids and I laughed deliciously at him.

It was a great day.

Just spent a half hour on the phone with my parents. They're both getting over this RSV crap, but we had an awesome conversation. Just nice to chit chat.

Also, I'm not at work today, which is great. Just taking a couple days to do some home repair stuff I've been meaning to get to before the holidays. I am very fortunate to have a job that affords me great flexibility and lots of time off.

I finally got the next episode of my podcast out.

Applause, that is great!!

The good thing: I have a 16 oz container of homemade (by an actual Korean Grandma, not by me) kimchi. It's basically a whole week of happiness or at least about 4 days.

A friend of mine is applying for a judicial position and I had the opportunity to write a heartfelt letter of recommendation for them yesterday.

Akiva wrote: ↑Tue Dec 06, 2022 12:38 pm I finally got the next episode of my podcast out.

I finally got to listen to another episode of Akiva's history podcast!

Brittney griner released from detention!

Both of my students who auditioned for all-state made it!

I was feeling sick and run down yesterday and have been sleeping a ton without feeling rested... hear me out... and then fell asleep at 6 pm last night. I woke up at 5:15 this morning. My sleep tracker says I slept 10 hours and 15 minutes last night. AND I FEEL GREAT TODAY!

So I had to travel for a hearing yesterday, and I'm sick with a cold... hear me out... and while I was gone, my wife painted and finished out my home office, which is a project I was supposed to tackle today! Now my office is done, looks amazing, and I don't have to do that work while sick today! My wife is the freaking best!

I just posted this story in Drunk Posting, but I realized it belongs here too!

So in the movie Animal House, the guys pull into Dexter Lake Road clubhouse because they saw that Otis Day and the Knights were performing. Boone goes to the bar and orders "a double rock and rye and seven Carlings." I've seen the movie a couple dozen times, and I've never known what those drinks were. But just tonight, I'm sitting at the bar directly across from a bottle of Hochstadter's Low and Slow Rock & Rye. So I look them up. Carling is just a brand of beer. Makes sense. And rock & rye is a kind of liqueur made with rye whiskey and rock candy. Oh... so sweet whiskey. I'm down for that. And Hochstadter's has been making their Low and Slow brand since 1884. Cool. So I ordered a shot. It was really awesome. Before that, I had a double shot of Crown on the rocks, which was also fantastic. And the whole reason we were there was to see a friend of ours sing at the bar with her husband. We had a blast.

Then we texted our adult children, because we like to mess with them when we drink. Part of this exchange included a pic of my wife sitting next to me. And then I messaged Aidan to say, "Aidan, it will be your job to find us and make sure we get home safely. HINT: we are somewhere in town." He and his friends immediately recognized the bar from the pic, and within 5 minutes, he and a buddy were sitting down with us. We sat there enjoying the music for a while longer, and then they safely got us and our vehicle home. What a wonderful evening!

And then my youngest drove me to Taco John's so that we could get nachos. My kids are awesome, and these are some tasty nachos.

Yesterday I finally found a dairy-free beef stroganoff recipe that looked good. So I made it! It WAS good!

Yesterday, my kid decided he wants to be a chef and made street tacos and they were the bomb.

Kyle wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 12:23 pm Yesterday, my kid decided he wants to be a chef and made street tacos and they were the bomb.

I want to know how to make street tacos.

Me too- but I was travelling and when I got home they were already made. And then he left five minutes later.

Akiva wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 12:26 pm

Kyle wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 12:23 pm Yesterday, my kid decided he wants to be a chef and made street tacos and they were the bomb.

I want to know how to make street tacos.

Honestly? Make your favorite taco and put it in a slightly smaller tortilla.

whew, almost forgot my password...

My wife and two younger daughters went to LA to see SF9 (K-Pop group) in concert this weekend. They all had a great time and my youngest said it was the best concert she has ever been to. It was a large part of her Christmas this year. I am just glad she was able to go and enjoy herself.

Eliahad wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 3:47 pm

Akiva wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 12:26 pm

Kyle wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 12:23 pm Yesterday, my kid decided he wants to be a chef and made street tacos and they were the bomb.

I want to know how to make street tacos.

Honestly? Make your favorite taco and put it in a slightly smaller tortilla.

Here in Texas, street tacos have a special marinade and spicing on the meat- which is usually some kind of cut steak.

Also- Mando remembered his password! That's awesome!

And y'all- I'm down to one last episode of 1899. This show (from the makers of Dark) is weird as crap. But I love it!

Oh my gourd! Yesterday I made my ground pork vindaloo in the instant pot. I haven't had this in over three years. IT'S SO GOOD!

Speaking of food... yesterday I made a meatloaf that was two thirds beef, one third pork sausage. Added brown sugar and ketchup and spices to make a barbecue sauce flavor. It cooked to perfection with a little caramelization around all the edges and even a little top and bottom. Holy shit it was good. I got compliments all the way around.

I like the meatloaf recipe!
Everyone here was measurably better yesterday, be it in behavior or homework or mood or steps forward. Big relief when all are going the right direction.

Yesterday was the first time I felt normal after two weeks of being run down with a cold. It felt great to feel great.

Had a two hour weather delayed opening yesterday!

Had a great day back at work, and then watched the Murderville Christmas Special with my wife and son! It was a great day!

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that we had all four sons home for Christmas, plus the future daughter-in-law. We had the chillest, most wonderful day complete with a resplendent Christmas nacho bar**. Then we topped it off by watching Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds in Spirited. So... not everything was perfect. But even an overlong, only half-funny musical retelling of A Christmas Carol couldn't ruin a wonderful day.


**A Christmas nacho bar is just like a regular nacho bar, but you have it on Christmas.

We had an impromptu rearrange my daughter's room day...it just happened and it picked her up out of a down mood. She is happy to have a clean, orderly, and rearranged room ...totally worth spending the day with her doing it.

Are you interested in temporary employment in my home?!

Yesterday the dog stole and ate my entire giant blueberry muffin, but hear me out: I just found another one in the kitchen this morning! And I'm eating it and guarding it with my whole body.

Yesterday I slept on and off all day sick in bed with a flu/strep thing-- but hear me out: I got to watch Kevin McCarthy get humiliated on three votes yesterday! Watching the GOP snake eat its tail is one of the greatest things I've witnessed.

Phoebe wrote: ↑Tue Jan 03, 2023 11:25 pm Are you interested in temporary employment in my home?!

I can arrange and clean other peoples' stuff much easier than my own.

Kat (my daughter) had fallen down the bottom 3 steps going to her new room (we built her a larger room in the basement with a BIG closet) and she hit her bum leaving a HUUUGE black bruise. This also made it hard for her to sit and well her meds can get her down so the room WIN was a really big WIN....to see her engaged and doing things she likes.

Meanwhile...my lab lady (the phlebotomist that draws my blood each week for D Dimer tests) is the absolute best! I barely even feel the needle and she hits home every time. When she sees me in the waiting room she gets me back real quick so I dont have to wait long. I have been stuck 5 or 6 times before just to get one vial drawn by the lab at my local doctor's office, but she gets it first try every time.
I was finished in enough time to return some garden trailer tires to Lowe's for a refund and then there was a shortcut to interstate and I had good traffic and got to work early after treating myself to a burger.
When I got to work....free Krispy Kreme donuts!

So far so good!

Not to discount the value of the rest of your good report here but my eyes only see the words Krispy Kreme. Honestly not even the word 'donuts' - just 'Krispy Kreme'. I'm stuck on it.

I had a crap day in so many ways, in a crap week of a crap month and crap year, AND YET in the process of throwing my hands up and trying to find a place to have my first meal and potty break of the day at 5 pm, I landed in an amazing Mexican restaurant where they served the best mild salsa and SCALLOP enchiladas stuffed with small but real and velvety-smooth scallops. Not like, one scallop with a bunch of other random fake crab, but SCALLOPS. In soft queso etc. My goodness. This bright spot was enhanced by the dining companion, my youngest kid, who is surprisingly an incredibly good person to visit restaurants with. At home he's a mildly picky eater who tries to get out of sitting at the table through the meal and makes unreasonable demands for condiments and service. At a restaurant, he transforms into an interested adventurer who wants things, generally is pleased with what he gets, and has interesting things to discuss. What is this about? I will not question it.

Oh my gosh. Scallop enchiladas sounds heavenly.

So we helped out cleaning and rearranging my daughter's room...
as I was taking out the trash I saw a pill bottle for her Concerta pills, and seeing pills in it took it out of the trash bag pocketing it just because I noticed it and thought it odd.

Yesterday, about4 days later, my daughter and wife were frantic looking for her meds. I had seen a date on the bottle of Dec 28th but my mind assured me it was the expiration date, so I made a mental not =e to find the bottle wherever I had stashed it, and double check that date.

Last night I get a frantic text asking if I had seen them, but my reply did not send due to poor signal.

I arrive home early (11:30 PM) only to find everyone still awake and searching all over. I headed to my dresser and checked the date and I was right..it did say Dec 28th...as the date it was filled.

I carried them downstairs to my daughter and wife and they were so relieved...

I was so glad I followed my instincts that told me something was off, even if it took a bit of work to clear things up.

Concerta is an anxiety med and it is highly regulated and would have been very difficult to get an approval for a new bottle of them.

My inner hoarder/6th sense made a difference for good!

Did y'all know that hydrocodone is a legitimate medicine that operates on the section of your brain to greatly suppress your urge to cough? And that if you have a dry, unproductive cough due to throat inflammation, its the first-line medication to address that symptom of viral strep? Well, I discovered this yesterday at 3 pm. And you know what? Yesterday was awesome.

Okay this is about today and not yesterday and it sounds trivial but trust me it's not: I lost a small sweet potato somewhere in the car and I just found it. Believe me that's not the kind of thing you want to lose in the car. If you ever lose a potato in your car you'll regret it later. Voice of experience is telling you.

I would put this in the fitness thread except for the obvious reason:
At CrossFit I was low to average relative to the impressive regulars. Could lift a lot but was not very fast or endurant.
Fast forward to regular gym: they keep on assuming my regular clean and jerk weight is deadlift day. Nah, I'll be cleaning that, and thanks for making ze old lady smile.

First speech meet of the year this weekend, with only a week of prep time since vacation. Noah was very rough and way over time for both his events, BUT he got HUGE laughs... especially for the entertainment speech that he had to write himself. In the second round he worked in a bunch of new edits and got the time thing under control. With further revision and a lot of practice, these are going to be great. Noah feels awesome about them and is highly motivated to put the work in this season. It was a good experience.

Not yesterday but some really good days were had. Was sick so didn't comment about them, but basically people came together to do nice things. Positive experiences were had, things went smoothly, planning paid off.

I've been reading a lot more than usual this year. Or rather... I've been read at a lot.

Yesterday I did some math, and at this pace, I'm on track to read 105 books this year, and that feels pretty baller to me. So my goal is to break 100 in 2023. Fingers crossed.

Also, I learned to solve a Rubik's cube! It's something I've always wanted to do, and it turns out it's not that tough. I've always been able to solve one side, plus the second row, and then if the wind was right... maybe the rest would fall into place. Maybe. Like 5% of the time.

So I just Googled how to do it, and found a nice site with clear diagrams that made sense to me. I made those diagrams the background on my computer and just started walking through it two or three times a day (each attempt was usually 5-10 minutes). After two weeks, I have the process memorized, and I don't need the diagrams anymore.

Yay me!

That is cool - I had a similar experience once it occurred to me that YouTube probably showed a solution. So at one point I had to watch how it was actually done and see if I could reproduce it. It was satisfying to finally understand what had seemed like an impossibility.