New Year's Memes ... with Special Appearances By ...

Close To Done ...

I have had many, many … okay, maybe just two … people ask about the kitchen remodel:

Where are the photos??
When is it going to be done?

Well, here are the photos and it’ll be done, sigh, when it’s done. Those are the before pictures up there, and it looks good, but I think that’s just the lighting. And below we’ll start with some of the recent photos; as you can see the layout stayed the same, which was done for Carlos’ eyesight. We have kept everything, except the dishwasher, in the same spot so it’s easier for Carlos to navigate.

Let’s dish …

This is the new kitchen yesterday morning; I love the blue and honey cabinets and I love the blue cabinets and how they go up on the pantry, and then the honey cabinets and how they come down around the fridge, and onto the island.

We did a large subway tile in a stacked formation along the walls because it bounces light around the kitchen and plays off the lighter tones in the quartz.

And the stove wall … and the vent hood, the bane of my existence. I found a hood I liked, had the power we wanted and yet ran very quietly and so I ordered it online. It was to come in a week … it took a month. And then there weren’t enough of the chimney sections to reach the 9-foot ceilings; it was about ten inches short. So, I emailed the company and the manufacturer and both replied “That’s how they’re made and we don’t make other pieces to fit a taller ceiling”—even though the website claimed the chimney went up to ten feet.

And after they gave me the “There’s nothing we can do” speech, they had the nerve to say, “Is there anything else we can help you with?”

“Um, let me see … you helped me with the—oh, yeah, you haven’t helped me at all!”

Click.

So a new hood was ordered once we double- and triple-checked that it would go up to the ceiling and it was set to be delivered in a week and as you can see it has yet to arrive.

Breathe.

This is the sink wall with a muted Mexican tile that rises from the counter between the two upper cabinets to the ceiling—this same tile pattern will go behind the stove once the %&$#ing new hood arrives. I love the look of the tile because it has all the colors of the cabinetry and hardware:

And also has all the colors in the quartz, from the dark blue to the grays to the tans; that’s my favorite thing.

In addition to a rectangle sink; I don’t know why, but I love a good rectangle sink.

The far end of the kitchen we have no photos for, because the walls need to be finished and the floating shelve above two small cabinets that will hold cookbooks and tchotchkes and such, are not up yet, and the flooring … the next step for the entire house, is not down yet.

But it’s closer to being done and that’s a good thing.

The Funny Papers

Marc Murphy, Michael de Adder, Nick Anderson, Pedro X Molina, Matt Wuerker, Max Espinoza, Clay Bennett, Dennis Goris, Chris Britt, Bill Bramhall, Gary Huck

Why Is It ...

… that if you’re someone who has left my life, please do not bother hitting me with that ‘Merry Christmas” text. You are Feliz Navidead to me.

… that the only thing that has been consistent this whole year is the “What the Fuck”

… that being able to respond to sarcasm within seconds of hearing a stupid question is actually a sign of a really healthy brain

… that I am at that delusional age where I think everyone my age looks way older than I do.

… that, at the work safety meeting today, no one liked when I was asked what steps I would take in the event of a fire and I replied, “Fucking big ones!:

… that all that’s left when I run out of fucks to give is fuckdust.

… that new people at work always feel the need to tell me that they “love my energy” and I always feel the need to reply, “Is that why you’re draining it?”

… that no one realizes that when they see me on the street, it’s AI.

… that since I don’t want to end this years on bad terms with anyone, go ahead and apologize to me now.

… that because my mother raised me with manners I always know which fork to use at a formal dinner, but because she also didn’t raise a fool, I what artery to stick it into  so you’ll bleed out in one minute.

I Didn't Say It ...

Sharyn Alfonsi, CBS journalist , taking on her MAGA editor, Bari Weiss, after Weiss canceled a 60 Minutes story that was damning for the Cankles regime:

“I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity. Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now—after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one. We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient. If the standard for airing a story becomes ‘the government must agree to be interviewed,’ then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state. These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless. CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that ‘low point.’ By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones. We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘Gold Standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet. I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight.”

The Cankles Regime’s CECOT deportations are a crime against humanity on the level of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal or the Bush administration’s crimes in Guantanamo Bay; the public MUST be made aware of just what Cankles and Pee Wee German did to those poor men and be held accountable for their actions.

Search for the story; you can find it. In Canada, where Free Speech is still valued, the story aired but in America where a fascist rules, speech is denied.

Resist!

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George Takei, actor and activist, on people who say he should “stick to acting”:

“It’s a taunt I often have hurled at me. I am a gay man in America whose marriage is under threat. The last time [Cankles] was in office, hate crimes against AAPIs [Asian American and Pacific Islanders] skyrocketed. I care deeply about this country and the future of our democracy [so] I’ll stick to activism.”

If anyone in this country deserves to speak up, it’s Takei, openly gay, married to a man, subjected to hate speech and having lived in a American Internment Concentration Camp during WW II.

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Jesse Thorn, content creator and father to a trans daughter, posted a  defense of trans kids during which he posed a question for all the cisgender haters:

“I have this memory of my wife handing me a printout of the book [she wrote, Feels Good to Be Yourself] and I read it, and I was just pouring tears. You’d think that would be because, like, this is a beautiful story of a trans kid, and it’s our kid. But actually, no. Actually, it was because it was about all of us. I’m cisgender. Everybody always assumed I was a man, and I actually am a man. And until my daughter came out, I never really had to think about my gender identity or even about anyone else’s. It was like transparent to me. I never consciously checked in with myself. People just assumed something, and it happened that they were right, so it just sort of ‘was'. And so when my kid came out, I had to really stretch my mind to imagine her experience. It was so different from my experience. I never chose my identity, and so my daughter must be choosing hers, and she must be rejecting my way of being in the world, is how it felt. [Those who hate trans people are] sort of caught on their back foot like, ‘Wait, I didn’t choose anything. These trans people must be choosing. I’m neutral. They’re different. They are rejecting me,’ and then people are taking that uncomfortable feeling and getting really nasty. In my wife’s book, there is no, ‘This way is normal. This way is different.’ There is the expectation that we each will engage with our own identities, think about who we are, and we might come up with different answers. Trans people had to look inward. Everybody was wrong about them. They had to figure themselves out. For cis people, we just never even tried. [My wife’s book] puts trans kids and cis kids on the same level. It’s because it asks cis people to think about themselves. It’s scary. What if we ask ourselves about ourselves, and we don’t like the answer?”

Thorn suggests that if you fear trans people “is it because they’re weird, or because you are being forced to deal with you?”

And that’s the answer. Pretty simple, eh?

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Peace Love Happiness

I didn’t know what you wanted for Christmas, so I’ll regift what I gave y’all last year … and the years before that: a repostage of my annual holiday wish that still holds true … for me:

Christmas means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

It's a religious holiday.
It's a shopping holiday.
It's a day for those who shop religiously.
I'm not a big fan of either.

So, for me, Christmas is a day to spend with those you hold most dear in your heart. For me, it's Carlos and my family. Of course, the family is mostly on the Left Coast and I'm over here on the right, so Christmas is me and Carlos, and Rosita and Consuelo Roca Jones—our furry kids.

It's a day of relaxation and togetherness; reflection and laughter; of a good dinner cooked and shared by the two of us. It's not a day for What did you get? or for thinking How could I have spent so much? It's a day for How lucky am I?

How lucky indeed.

Christmas is more than a celebration; it's a connection we all can share regardless of faith, if we look at it as a day of Peace. A day to relax; to forgive, if not forget. To be at Peace.

Every year I get the same question from friends and strangers alike: What are you getting for Christmas? What do you want for Christmas? And I always say, What I get is a lovely day. What I want, and I ask for it every year, is Peace on Earth.

So here's to Peace on Earth, and the little parts that each of us plays in creating our own peace. To make amends to those we may have slighted in the past year; to those who may have slighted us. To talk with the people we love just because we love them. To be nice.

Just to be nice. Now, there's a concept. Maybe if we all took a moment to think about how we'd like to be treated, we would find ourselves treating others the same way. It's a small step, but an important one. A Please here and a Thank You there. You're Welcome is good, too, though My pleasure, is better. Hold a door open for someone; let someone with fewer packages get in line ahead of you. Lay off the horn. Don't speed. Smile. Be nice.

Be at Peace.
Merry Christmas world.
Happy Hanukkah.
Happy Kwanzaa.
Merry Festivus.
Happy Holidays.
Peace.

And so that's my wish for you and yours. Health. Happiness. Love. Peace.

And, while I've said it over and over again, that I have my personal spiritual beliefs and they do not follow the teachings of any organized religion, every Christmas, no song makes me feel more peaceful, happier, more at ease, or more hopeful than this one.

And so I'll end with O Holy Night, not because I am a religious man, but because I am a hopeful man, a peaceful man, a contented man. And no one, for me, sings it better than my girl, JHud.....Jennifer Hudson.

I wish you Peace Love Happiness