Month: December 2025

–Gray day, a little bit of drizzle.

–Took Kenny to the Davis ER on X Street last night. Heard it might be 11 hours, so we came home. I went to bed; Grace stayed up. Kenny called early this morning, telling Grace he got in in an hour, had lots of imaging, and spent the night in a bed. He got ambulance transport home. All is good, no breaks. Back to normal, though he may be looking for a part-time caregiver.

–CoCo from Hermes Replica finally gave in and allowed a refund. What a terrible experience.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Almost time to pop the champagne…

–Tried for bagels, but New York Bagels had a message saying “We can’t answer now…” Don’t know what’s happening.

–Kenny’s getting tiresome. Bought him some groceries at Bel Air. He’s decided he needs the CT ASAP, so we’re taking him downtown tonight to UC Davis Imaging. I dread what will happen if he has surgery. He (a) has lots of family in Davis, but seems fairly estranged from them, and (b) can afford a visiting nurse, but would probably rather use his neighbors. I may get a gold coin out of all this, but I don’t know if it’s worth it.

–Took Kenny to the nearby UC Davis Clinic. Seems like a good place: Very quick service, caring/knowledgeable people, etc. They took a second set of x-rays. He learned later later that the Carbon Health x-rays showed nothing. He trusts the Davis group more, though.

–Went to Target to pick up Tylenol and a Lidocain pad prescription for Kenny. Stopped at UPS for lots of stuff. Stopped at Bel Air for milk for me and Kenny, mushrooms and tomatoes for a pizza. Turns out the Chinese knockoff of the Clean EDC Pillar spinner (a) is identical, (b) is better finished, and (c) spins more smoothly–at 1/3 the price. Grrr…

–Made a steak pan pizza for dinner. Delicious, though again the crust was unexpectedly soggy, given a 550 degree oven.

— Downloaded Whatsapp to deal with the Hermes replica folks (at their insistence). Had a supremely bad interaction with CoCo where he tried hard to get me to buy something from their catalog, given that the two wallets I ordered were out of stock. Don’t know if I’ll ever get a refund; my fault I guess for thinking I could get a $2,000 wallet for $150.

–Got a call from Kenny this morning asking for help after he fell on his hip in the garden. We went over and did a few things–stopped a beeping smoke detector, made a bed on the first floor, etc. He called 30 minutes later saying he’d like a ride to an urgent care facility. I drove him to a Davis center that had an x-ray machine but no technician. Thence to a nearby Carbon Health center which had both. After a goodly wait (hour?), he got in. Physical exam seemed to indicate no problems. They did the x-ray and will call him with results. All seems good at the moment. [edit] He called us back to bring his wheelchair down from the 2nd floor. Also replaced his smoke detector after putting new battery in. Still beeped every 30 seconds. It’s 22 years old; will buy him a new one.

–Fairly sunny day.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for mandarins and apples. It was kind of a ghost town wrt vendors and customers.

–Moved the plant stand against the spigot wall in back. Looks pretty good, gets good sun now.

–Had a terrible diarrhea/crap attack last night. It may have been the culmination of some issue (like constipation), as I’ve felt better today than recently.

–Pretty clear day.

–Moved the Weber back from the garage to the patio. Tightened the screws and set up the plant stand in back. It’s not the most heavily-built stand, with a single large plant able to bend the shelf wires. Oh well…

–Went to UPS for many things: (a) a Modusworks Retcore core. Installed it, but can’t imagine why I bought it. It does have a metal (not Ultem bearing retainer though. (b) Magnus plates. (c) Flanges for the buffer. (d) 100mg Losartan. (e) An ultem slider from Magnus.

–Christmas!

–A major weather day. Brief but huge torrential rain storms, sometimes mixed with hail, interspersed with blue skies.

–Moved the Weber into the garage in anticipation of cooking steaks there. Decided not to, mostly because of the weather. Cooked them on the stove in the new Erie pan, which is a really nice pan. The Roquefort butter hardly tasted, but the rosemary butter on Kenny’s baked potato was wonderful.

–My stomach is still feeling bloated/gassy, despite a couple doses of high-strength Phazyme. Hope it’s not something serious.

–Watered Kenny’s plant.

–Saw one five-minute burst of rain all day.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels and Gas-X. Got Phazyme (4x the active ingredient of simethicone). Only allowed one capsule every 24 hours, and it doesn’t seem to have done anything.

–Wrapped Grace’s Christmas presents.

–No rain today.

–Took Grace to our doctor appointments at UC Davis Health. I liked Dr. Swensson a lot. Grace (predictably) did not, one reason being the Swensson wouldn’t renew her Tramadol prescription. Duh.

–I had a bacon/egg/cheese breakfast sandwich at Beach Deli while Grace was at Bel Air. Yum!

–Went to UPS to pick up LIC Ultem buttons, Grace’s Rick & Morty t-shirt, and airway buffs. Turns out the grinder has a 3/4″ arbor, while the buffs have 5/8″ holes. There are 1,471 ways to adapt things, and I’m leaning toward the simplest: drill out the holes in the buffs. Could be dangerous. [edit] On second thought, I doubt either drill will accept a 3/4″ bit.

–Finally won a Metro slider. Won 5 actually, in a button-pushing frenzy. Got refunded for 4.

–Took a shower and shave. That bronze Wolfman is a VERY nice razor, for me anyway.

–Lots of clouds, but no rain again today. It’s coming, they say. Okay.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air.

–Made a pizza. For some reason, the dough was extremely easy to spread in the skillet, and the skillet is the perfect size. N of 1, but the skillet acts better than the Spider pan, in terms of not sticking and easy cleanup.

–No rain today between 8 and bedtime; I thought they had predicted tons.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for mandarins and apples.

–Grace and I brought Kenny his Christmas card/jam and chatted a bit.

–Stopped at UPS for (a) Erie skillet (very nice) and Felco 80th anniversary pruners (very nice).

–Went to Bel Air for coffee (Starbucks!), milk and cream.

–The third or fourth hopper extension on the Timemore seems to work: takes a lot of beans, doesn’t seem to popcorn. Wish it were screwed on, rather than using magnets. But it is the only one so far that keeps the original hopper intact.

–Played around with Retcore spinners. COMPLETELY lost one of the tiny screws. By far the most mysterious disappearance I’ve experienced so far. There just aren’t that many places it could go.

–Started to order the annual Walgreen’s photo ornament, but realized it would arrive too late. Picked a couple of photos and printed them. Will glue them together and put a ribbon on.

–Went to Corti Brothers for New York steak and Roquefort. Butcher vacuum-wrapped the steaks so they’d keep better. Then to Walgreen’s for photos. Then across the street to Coffee and Donuts for dessert. Then to UPS for Indy Thicc Skelp (disappointing “Python” buttons), NJT damasteel Vader (fine), and Timemore hopper extension (we’ll see tomorrow).

–Was really tired, so took a little nap.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Went to UPS to pick up (a) antimacassars, (b) Clean EDC XL brass spinner (nice), (c) Retcore balls, (d) the second lemon squeezer. I’ve been trying for an hour to trace what happened with the missing squeezer and (now) the extra squeezer, and I can’t. It seems that one got mis-delivered to a Gold River home (from the FedEx photo). Beyond that, the details are almost impossible to re-create.

–Sunny day, quiet day.

–Took a shower and shave–with the new Ascender razor. Very nice.

–The sun came out! Unbelievable how it instantaneously warmed things up a lot.

–Went to Target to pick up a Moana Pig for us to give to Susan Nourse. Stopped to have a breakfast sandwich at New York Bagels.

–Boxed up all remaining Christmas presents and dropped them off at UPS. Picked up my packages, and discovered (in a bit) that the iPhone consisted of two padded envelopes taped up and put inside a Tyvek envelope. I wrote the eBay seller, and he said the phone must have been stolen, and he would contact the PO for insurance. Seems unlikely to me, but I can’t argue if I’m made whole.

–Boxed up some presents for Bellevue and Susi/Daniel.

–Went to Barnes & Noble so Grace could look for something for Hatsumi.

–Went to Sprouts so Grace could look for chocolate to send people.

–Dropped boxes off at UPS, picked up iPhone 16.

–Stopped at Bel Air for milk, frozen dinners.

–Ate Marie’s country fried chicken. Not bad.

–Spent a while setting up new iPhone. It has eSIM, so that took some doing, in addition to the new interface (no button on the bottom). Much to learn.

–Parked the Honda outside and blew the leaves out of the garage, also blew the dust off the buffer station.

–Worked some more on the Wolfman razor head. Tried Bergeon satin wheels on it to get the tiny dings out, but no luck. Rubbed it for a while on a Fine 3M sanding pad, and that seemed to do the trick. Put it back on the buffer with a satin wheel and it looks pretty darn clean. Lessons: (1) The numerous tiny patterned dings were likely the result of too much pressure/insufficient buff cleaning/etc. while buffing earlier. (2) Wiping off rouge with a used rag adds its own scratches. Will have to figure out a way to remove excess rouge without harming the mirror finish.

–Missed another Metro slider drop. Those $400 sliders will be selling on Facebook soon for $750–$800.

–I thought I had my eBay issues all sorted out, but today I got another email saying they had changed my password because of suspicious activity. So I went through the whole thing again. Really annoying. Wondering if it’s the assholes whose “Magnus” sliders I got taken down at eBay.

–Motor City pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace shopping at Smart & Final.

–Won another SUS at Facebook/LIC EDC. Kind of amazing.

–Took a Tramadol yesterday and slept hardly at all. May have been the Coke in conjunction, I don’t know.

–Went to USPS to mail off Rob’s gift to Canada.

–Took Grace to Bel so she could buy some ribbon.

–Ordered a $792 iPhone 16 in Ultramarine from the Roseville Galleria Apple store, to be delivered Monday.

–Picked up expensive buff/rouge at UPS. Tried it on the latest Wolfman razor. Not so great. For allits cost, the buff vibrates like crazy. Ordered some guaranteed-to-be-soft buffs from Renegade.

–Vicolo pizza for dinner.

–Took Grace to Historic Folsom for Christmas shopping.

–Went to UPS for the Ascender razor. Beauty. Also got a $15 check for the lemon squeezer from eBay that was delivered, according to USPS, but which wasn’t in the UPS store.

–Frozen dinner for dinner. Grace doesn’t want a Bel Air pizza.

–Still foggy.

–Watered Kenny’s plant. It’s not looking very good.

–Went to UPS for (a) Retcore copper balls. Turns out one is .3 grams heavier than the other, so there’s no way to balance the spinner. Tossed ’em. (b) Hario kettle. Lots of stickers on it, one of which required acetone to remove. Seems okay now. Will try tomorrow. (c) Magnus resin slider. Beautiful covers, but it has perforated plates and tiny soft balls instead of o-rings. I spent a LONG time trying to find a magnet combo that would work; couldn’t (couldn’t even swap plates with my other resins, as they have solid plates with o-rings, and wouldn’t go together. Will sell.

–On a lark, tried to put the genuine iPhone battery into an iPhone I had discarded–not sure why. Everything went okay, but on bootup I discovered the camera was super wonky–either all black, or horribly distorted. Could not see a problem with cables or anything. Tossed again. Looking into a NEW (not Red) model 16, with a much higher MaH battery (hopefully at 100%). Gettin’ tired of my phones losing 1-2% percent an hour of battery.

–Got a nice haircut from Brittany at Great Clips.

–Took a shower and shave. Tried the new (to me) Wolfman with 1.55mm gap. Got several cuts. I have found my limit.

–Yes, still foggy.

–Went to New York Bagels for a dozen sesame. They had to pull them from the display. There were a couple racks of just-baked plain bagels, one of which was likely my order, without the sesame seeds. Price (with banana bread) was $21, like it always is, except for the last visit, where it was $31. Grrr……

–Biggest police presence I ever saw at Olson and 50 overpass: a dozen cars with lights flashing, a motorcycle, a couple of emergency vehicles. I saw one car with front-end damage, but not enough to need that show of force.

–Picked up LIC SS Mini Mame at UPS. Nice. Also got the iPhone battery from Apple. Installed it without damaging anything, charged it up. Shows 100% battery health. We’ll see how it holds up.

–The (new) original I bought for the Timemore reminds me of how badly-designed that aspect of the grinder is. Can’t put a load of beans in at once, popcorns like crazy–just useless. Guess I’ll go back to the after-market 3D printed hopper.

–Tried to buy a little thing on eBay and they gave me the warning (for the 5th time in the last couple weeks) about “someone has accessed your account” and wouldn’t let me do anything until I contacted them. I called, read back a number they texted me, and all was good. I have to think this was related to me shutting down the “Magnus” listings from saralanning and chrisweb. Fuck ’em.

–Still foggy.

–Reconciled/rationalized/sorted out my spinner buttons. Replaced the numbered post-its with blue painter’s tape, which sticks much better. All accounted for except one silver Pyra. I know I had one with crappy plates, but it’s hard to believe I tossed the whole thing, given that plates can be replaced. It might show up buried in the closet some day.

–Made a pizza for dinner–in the Erie skillet this time instead of a flat pan. 550 degrees for 12 minutes; came out good.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for mandarins and apples. COLD!

–Took Grace to Smart & Final.

–Tended to plants. Moved Kenny’s dieffenbachia (dumb cane) indoors.

–Went to UPS for Elforyn buttons (nice) and Oddiev bearing tool (nice).

–Mokume Edamame came in. Nice, but not $2,250 nice. Also the LIC EDC tri Mame. Nice.

–Washed my sweatpants and long-sleeved shirts.

–Went to Bel Air for bagels, Sensodyne, a couple frozen dinners.

–Back to dank and dreary.

–LIC Turboglow spinner buttons came. Nice. Also Timemore hopper. I put it on, played with start/stop button a bit. It seems good; we’ll see.

–Got a smog check for the Honda at Beta Smog, just off Coloma. Now the DMV will send registration tags.

–Kenny drove me to the Costco in Folsom. He got his Ferrero-Rocher candy to give out for Christmas; I got Pellegrino and toilet paper.

–Picked up the Magnus Bel Air slider at UPS; pretty nice, all there, good shape. Also the Hidehisa pruners. Huge, heavy, slippery. Tossed ’em. Looking at some nice Felco pruners. Also a Wolfman WR2 razor with a big (1.55mm) gap. Looked like high polish (except for the head), but claimed to be basic. I worked on the head a bit. Helped a little (maybe), then ordered a loose wheel and blue compound at eBay.

–Motor City pizza for dinner.

–After a whole lot of confusion and dead ends, I found an online traffic school that was cheap and legit. Took the course; hopefully that ends this episode. Gotta stay clean for 18 months now.

–Magnus Egg Slicer came in. Pretty, but needs some work.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Sun is finally starting to peek out from the fog.

–Paid State Farm $746.87 for BMW.

–Bought $5,000 Bitcoin at Coinbase, following a $7,000 purchase a week ago.

–Went to UPS for Goldie tungsten (nice, but I really don’t see the huge appeal of tungsten) and Tea-Time buttons (really nice). Got a Vicolo pizza for dinner at Bel Air.

–Still dank and dreary.

–Went to UPS for Drake’s spinner buttons (nice); then Bel Air for cream cheese, lunch cheese, dessert.

–Lost one drop (Metro spinner), won a second (Ziii red Corian spinner). The Ziii may have been just a pre-order, as they still seemed to have them several minutes after drop time–though I thought their Facebook post said 7 only (and the photo on the site shows 7). Who knows…