Pen-Elayne on the Web

Wrapping Up the Month

2026-07-31T20:15:14.854-04:00

Weird day, I had dreams of my mother back when she was mobile (pre-COVID) but I knew she was gone so I kept wondering if I should ask her how she could be there when she was dead. Not the first time this has happened, but it was impetus enough to keep me up in the wee smalls as well as ta post-logoff visit to my uncle in his current assisted-living facility a short bus ride away. And my cousin showed up while we were there, so that was a nice bonus! While we were out I mailed some checks at the post office and we had some copies made of our mailbox key (alas, we'll have to return as, while they fit the lock, we couldn't turn them to open the mailbox). The heat took a lot out of me, and I've been hydrating like mad since we got home. I'm just happy July is over with.

Silly Site o' the Day

2026-07-30T20:10:00.000-04:00

My feet are still hurting, nobody really needed me in the office, so since I've done my two mandated days today and tomorrow I get to keep working from home, which usually means I'm more productive than usual anyway. Of course, I do miss watching the water towers:

Via Laughing Squid.

Homeward Bound

2026-07-29T21:18:00.000-04:00

After three straight days on my feet, especially with yesterday's commute (MTA's BusTime lied to me about my commuter bus not being in operation in the morning so I wound up doing the local bus/subway/ walking thing both ways and that really did a number on the tootsies), I decided to take it easy and work from home the rest of this week, having met my 2-day-in-office mandatory quota. And I really needed it, I'm still very tired from all the flitting about. Fortunately I had a chance to relax a bit, although not really all that much since my workload continues to be surprisingly heavy for this time of year. It does look like things will calm down next month, but I don't want to speak too soon.

Silly Site o' the Day

2026-07-28T20:05:00.000-04:00

If you're gonna do a LEGO ad, here's the right way to do it:

Unfortunately the LEGO don't actually move or do anything, so the ad is a tad deceptive.

Can't Trust That Day

2026-07-27T20:00:00.000-04:00

Still somewhat exhausted from yesterday's sojourn, I nonetheless schlepped into the city with my backpack to help greet a bunch of peer reviewers and make sure all was in readiness for this very busy week of both peer reviewing and PCAOB inspections. I'll be so thrilled when the week is over! July has been a heck of a month, and I need a vacation more than ever, but at this point I'll settle for a quiet August. I tried to keep my movements to a minimum, and it was really nice doing the homeward commute unburdened as all my stuff was left at the office in a temporary locker. Still, methinks I'm getting too old for this, Riggs.

Zoo Me

2026-07-26T21:49:08.800-04:00

This morning we made our final preparations for the 20-minute drive down to the Bronx Zoo to stroll about and schmooze with coworkers and take photos of the animals. This time we stayed longer than we'd planned as we had "table duty" for an hour where Robin drew sketches of the mascot for one of the firm's charities and I got to exhort folks to donate to receive very cute little animal keychains with KPMG t-shirts (I got the little lion, which goes with my work backpack). Unfortunately the volunteer hour meant there was no way we could realistically make the monorail in the Asia exhibit, probably my favorite part of the zoo, because if you don't go in the morning (which we couldn't as our time started at noon) you will never get into as the queues are too long. That did me in for certain, and we decided to abandon the queue and head on home to watch our recording of the last Tour de France stage and pretty much collapse. I'm still somewhat somnambulant, but managed to shower thanks to Rob's assistance. All my stuff is now packed for tomorrow, it's just a matter of getting up at 5:15 AM...

Back in Business

2026-07-25T21:27:00.000-04:00

The new printer arrived while we were out shopping and sush'ing, and I still can't believe Robin was able to carry it up that indoor flight from the landing to our apartment. Goodness only knows when it'll be out of the place entirely, it sits near the old air conditioner in its box. It may be time to take our downstairs neighbor up on his offer to help with the schleppage. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready for tomorrow's company outing to the Bronx Zoo, which is sure to exhaust me as I then have to go into the office two days running. Ah well, one day at a time!

Hardware and Software

2026-07-24T18:05:00.000-04:00

Few things put me into fight-or-flight (in this case, always flight) mode faster than tech going wrong. And of course with built-in enshittification (used to be "obsolesence" but enshittification is so much worse) things go wrong a lot more quickly than they used to. For about a week I haven't been able to log onto a client site, and neither the helpdesk at my firm nor theirs has been able to help me. So this will probably necessitate a trip to the physical client site in the Wall Street area in my near future to get someone to fix it there. Then our printer gave out today, shortly after I printed my pay stub. Robin's kept it going for about eight years but couldn't manage whatever was wrong with it today, so we bit the financial bullet and bought a new one, arriving tomorrow. Lastly, what the what with our cable? We haven't been able to tune into a bunch of channels for a few days now. Our workaround was watching them via Apple TV, which means it's not the carrier but the physical cable boxes. I suspect an update caused something to break, and it turned out the boxes needed a hard reboot (which the carrier usually does remotely but didn't this time). Voila, our channels are all back now, albeit with occasionally jumps in the transmission (which I still think of as glitches in the matrix). I miss the days when I could just turn on a TV and adjust the antenna...

Strolling

2026-07-23T20:11:00.000-04:00

Finally, a lovely day at work and quiet enough in the office that I could afford to take my behaving foot on a stroll to nearby Hudson Yards (so many little parklets there to sit!) and see the giant soccer ball (near the criminally overpriced FIFA 2026 store) and the Big Pink Bear hanging out by the Vessel. And I now know a better way to get there and back (involving cutting through the Whole Foods and the Hudson Yards mall) to save me a bit of walking. But I wanted to practice, because on Sunday our firm has its annual Family Day at the Bronx Zoo and I'm sure that will involve a fair bit of walking (although I'll have my walking stick with me). And then of course England will necessitate perambulation as well. I'm definitely getting there! Between the lunchtime sojourn and my homeward commute my foot does hurt a bit, but nothing like it has in the past year or so. And I miss getting around, so I'm pleased I can do it this well.

Drug Induced

2026-07-22T20:52:24.354-04:00

I woke up earlier than I'd planned with what I guess was a touch of indigestion, and my heart area didn't feel quite right for most of the morning. As a result I felt drugged, and although I got a lot done around the apartment (emptying recycling bags, putting away laundry, dealing with more Mom Estate stuff) I felt quite inadequate work-wise, so I took four hours of PTO and just sat quietly, playing my online games and watching the Yankees lose the first game of their double-header, and the Mets lose as well. Not the best day for NY baseball. Oh, and we've responded to a cousin's invite for his wedding in Philadelphia for the weekend before we head to England, so that'll be a fun "dry run" of Being Away. Now, of course, it's evening and I'm wide awake.

Let the Stormy Clouds Chase

2026-07-21T20:42:00.000-04:00

Robin was kind enough to pack my corporate-labeled rain jacket into my backpack this morning but, as it turned out, despite the sky darkening and thunder rumbling mid-afternoon, I didn't need it at all for my commute in either direction. I must have danced between the raindrops, as every above-ground surface showed signs of it Having Rained Heavily, but even though I cut out a tad early to avoid any tornadic activity (hey, there were warnings) I encountered exactly zero problems. Well, except for two different straphangers banging into my knee on their way out the subway doors. I can deal with subways, but just barely. Work was a lot easier to deal with, even did a bit of self-study when my normal workload was wrapped up. With so many partners involved in inspections (met with four of them today) or out of town, I can hurry up and wait all I want but requests don't necessarily appear. Not a complaint, this is what summer should be about. Still, I'm about pooped now, the Mets certainly aren't keeping me awake, and the week isn't half over yet...

Cirdacian What?

2026-07-20T20:52:49.101-04:00

Ugh, I've been up since around 4:30 AM, very uncomfortable and too warm in bed, even with the AC on. Fortunately we were finally able to give the ACs a rest during the morning, it's been either too hot or too humid to turn them off, but they were back in business by early afternoon. Such is summer! A nice easy day at work, as most of my partners were either busy with inspections or out of town, so that made for a nice change and I was very grateful considering my lack of sleep. Robin and I both dozed for a bit before putting on the ACs and then again after dinner this evening, so I'm feeling almost human now and ready for whatever comes up at the office tomorrow. But first, perhaps a bit more sleep?

Back on the Bike

2026-07-19T20:43:00.000-04:00

Well, at least for today, and it was only ten minutes. But when I actually feel rested enough and I have the energy and incentive from watching the Tour de France, yeah, I can do ten minutes. Besides, I relaxed the rest of the day, watching the boring-ass World Cup final (yesterday's game was so much better!) and bits of baseball games (Mets won, Yankees split their day-night double header) and even some golf. Mostly sports-less tomorrow, but that's a work day anyway. I hope my body kicks into gear and makes the bike a habit! Particularly since I now have new flexible watch bands in multiple colors (and some wires to hang them on) so wearing my Apple watch to time my exercise won't bother me as much. And if I don't go on? Not beating myself up over it, I have to listen to my body and whether it needs sleep or movement.

A Game for the Ages?

2026-07-18T20:25:59.083-04:00

England has moved up in the FIFA world rankings with today's defeat of France in a truly bizarre and memorable World Cup third-place game. They were up 4-0 at halftime, and it was clear to most thinking people that France had no real intention of playing. I mean, I wore an "I Love England Football" t-shirt today, i know they're good, but they're normally not "beat France" good. AI claims "France's lack of effort or intensity in their games stems from two main issues: tactical frustration in their World Cup exit to Spain and morale issues," but considering FIFA's longstanding corruption I believe money changing hands must also have been involved somehow. Alas, we'll never know. At least I can take some comfort in believing that Tadej Pogačar won this stage of the Tour de France fair and square, he's phenomenal and so pleasant to watch! Mets lost today, of course, and the Yankees game has been postponed until tomorrow as the weather is really nasty. It started raining about when we exited the supermarket so we got a tad wet when bringing up the groceries, but driving conditions weren't dangerous until a bit later and now... well, I wouldn't want to go out in this mess. Maybe it'll finally cleanse the air quality. In other unsurprising news, we continue to organize for our England trip, and Robin's been amazing at frothing heavy cream so it almost got to the consistency of proper English cream so I could enjoy it with my strawberries, as well as sorting my iPad charger as the one I'd been using suddenly stopped working. All I've done is consolidate some more shopping bags as the ones we've been using are starting to fray, file away the Mom's estate paperwork, apply a solution on which to hang my Apple watch bands so I can sort through them the way I do my earrings, and of course buy more watch bands as I don't have any real vibrant ones (or blue ones that resemble KPMG's corporate colors and I want one of those for our Family Day at the Bronx Zoo in two weeks). Nothing much really.

Ping Ponging

2026-07-17T20:11:00.000-04:00

Fun day at work and at home, trying to juggle lots of job and personal stuff at the same time. I feel like I'm at a ping pong game or something. But personal stuff (more things from Mom's estate) is done, I have a bunch more papers to file, and I'm in good shape at work as usual. Even had a chance to speak with my uncle this afternoon in his new senior living complex (via FaceTime no less, Mom could never have done that!). Big weekend awaits for footie, with England/France tomorrow in the consolation game and Spain v. Argentina in the big one, commandeered to a ludicrous extent by US insistence on four quarters throughout the tournament (these "hydration breaks" totally ruin the flow of the game) and an actual Halftime Show. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get back on the bike over the weekend, if I can breathe by that point.

Choking Hazard

2026-07-16T21:24:00.000-04:00

I can't remember being this masked up out of doors since 2023, when Mom was still living in Bayville and we wore masks in the car driving down to New Jersey to see her. Today it was all public transit and walking, but even crossing Ninth Avenue to the Moynihan train station was difficult. The office was nicely hermetically sealed, however, and I'm fairly well caught up with job work. Maybe things will get better tomorrow, when I don't have to leave the house anyway.

Quality of Life

2026-07-15T20:32:00.000-04:00

The air quality rose to dangerous levels today due to the Canadian wildfires wafting down to cover much of the northern US. Thank goodness I work from home on most Wednesdays so I didn't have to go out anywhere, although I believe some of the bad air did come through to our apartment. Certainly it affected us both physically, because we're Olds. Something else that came through our apartment was our downstairs neighbor with his daughter - huge comic book fans, and the daughter is an illustrator. She was positively drooling over Robin's work, and they showed us photos from the various cosplays they've done at comic conventions. Made me long for my "previous" life before it got too unwieldy to travel and Friends of Lulu's mission was more or less accomplished and Robin wasn't really having that much fun any more (hey, those cons are work for him). But it's wonderful to have "fans" living in the same house as us! Not coming through today was England; I honestly didn't expect them to win the semi-finals against friggin' Argentina, but I also didn't expect things to get so nasty. Ah well, I get to see them battle France for third place in the Hundred Hours War on Saturday, sans England shirt as that's finally in the laundry.

Gearing Up

2026-07-14T20:04:00.000-04:00

A very hot, windy day where I work, but no issues walking, so the hallux is holding up okay. I schlepped an Amazon return into Whole Foods, where I usually get my lunch, and because of the weather I decided to splurge for a 2-liter bottle of iced tea to pour from during the afternoon. Well, enough of it was left over by the time for my homeward commute that I took it home along with my laptop and, while I was glad to have it during the few minutes in direct sunshine waiting for the local bus, I really can't carry that much stuff any more over great distances. But I'm home now, the All-Star game is underway, I cannot believe France is out of the World Cup on Bastille Day!, and I'm ready for bed again. More heat tomorrow but I'm working from home again.

The Calm Before

2026-07-13T21:03:00.000-04:00

No baseball (Home Run Derby doesn't count, particularly as they've changed the rules again and none of it really matters anyway), no footie, weather is decent enough to have had the windows open for a few hours this morning but we're back to AC... I feel like I'm in a holding pattern again. I got nothin'. Work is well in hand, took a couple hours PTO as I felt positively drugged, but nothing much to watch...

Steamy

2026-07-12T20:24:49.405-04:00

I didn't go out today, although Robin's been downstairs to the front door at least once with an Amazon pickup (I laid out my weekly pills and supplements this morning and found I needed to order more of the latter, so those will be here any minute), but the heat still permeates and makes us both feel kind of drugged. So I watched some Tour de France and both NY baseball teams (so not worth it) and odd sports like cricket, but mostly rested and did the dishes and... oh yeah, steamed about 7 shirts for work, so I consider that a good day. Next I'll have to get up enough energy (which I did NOT have today) to get back on the exercise bike. But for now, I'm catching up on my debit accounts...

Through to the Semis!

2026-07-11T19:23:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I'm undergoing World Cup withdrawal, but I really got into it this year. I mean, I'm not as obsessive as our mayor, but once you get to the quarter finals (even the Gang of 8) there have been some enjoyable games. And I didn't expect England to beat Norway, so the fact that they did made it even more fun for this binational household. Certainly more fun than the crispy rice hot dog we had at Kura. Folks, please stay away from that, if you value your palates and stomachs. Other than that, the sushi was lovely, the food shopping reasonable, and my hallux behaved. Next on the weekend agenda, catching up on personal finances (as opposed to inherited ones) and steaming some tops to wear to work because I'm definitely not going to want to do that with the rising temps.

Silly Site o' the Day

2026-07-10T20:02:00.000-04:00

We continue to enjoy the World Cup as the quarter finals start to wrap up, but I'm not sure I'd go to this sort of lengths even if I had this person's immense talents:

Via Laughing Squid.

The Perils of Speaking Too Soon

2026-07-09T20:10:00.000-04:00

I honestly thought the reupholstering of my orthotics had taken care of the hallux soreness. Even bragged about how I could walk again to my coworkers today. Alas, lots of walking and standing about (especially the latter) during the World Cup watch at the office (where we were treated to tasty food from our San Antonio branch as they'd lost the basketball bet, and of course everyone shows up for food so the queue was pretty long) did enough damage that the blister was back by the time I got home. So my conclusion is that it was me staying off the foot last week and not really going anywhere that contributed to the healing. Not doable going forward, alas, especially with an upcoming vacation after Labor Day. Ah well, I'll make do the way I've been making do for the last 18+ months, I suppose. It's not debilitating, just painful, so I'll be careful. For now, I'll just rest.

A Day Without World Cup

2026-07-08T20:41:37.143-04:00

I had the opportunity yesterday to watch the Egypt-Argentina match either in my office or out on Manhattan West Plaza, but after the first half I was kind of falling asleep so opted to go back to my workstation instead. Fortunately we recorded the playback on our home DVR last night, and I finally watched that this morning. And yeah, I can see where the corrupt FIFA (but I repeat myself) seems to have greatly favored Argentina, especially on that brilliant disallowed goal, but unlike the overturned American red card it's not like you can prove anything was amiss. So it was fun to hear the incident alluded to by our footie-loving mayor this morning, and I think going forward I'm going to record all the remaining games, or at least tomorrow's as that will be taking place as I get ready to leave the office for my homeward commute. Meanwhile, the NY baseball teams are either winning or losing, and both could really use an All Star Game break.

Learning to Walk

2026-07-07T20:33:00.000-04:00

Today was the acid test for whether the newly-upholstered orthotics have really made the difference in my no longer having foot pain, as it involved a bit of walking during my commute. So far so good, the bump on my left hallux may take a little time to fully heal (as is the case for diabetics) but it doesn't appear anything is pushing it into the shoe any more. And I can walk a lot faster without pain and without limping, provided I reteach myself how to do that. I keep expecting, pardon the pun, the other shoe to drop, and it hasn't happened yet, so I just have to retrain my body how to walk normally without a limp and hope the rest of me gets properly aligned again. It's been bad for at least a year and a half, so the sudden absence of pain is delightful.