Gromnir

something something something doj weaponization something. political witch hunt something something hillary something something something. something something establishment democrats something obama. antifa, blm something something something. banana republic something something. as little as fifteen years past, could you imagine republican leadership public embracing organizations such as the proud boys and oath keepers? is so not normal to see mainstream gop excusing extreme groups who embrace intolerance just so long as they is fighting the right enemies: establishment democrats, socialists, immigrants, etc. don't expect reasonable or rational. is ridiculous ez to dupe those who have surrendered to hopelessness. give 'em any excuse to be outraged. channel jungian archetypes? perhaps voodoo? dunno. regardless, is not difficult to string together the right dog whistles and triggers to reach the alt-right/trump base collective unconscious. however, trump only cares 'bout trump. IF he were to be reelected, which seems highly unlikely seeing as how in 2023 he is not even as popular as he were when he lost the 2020 Presidential contest, what motivation would he have for pardoning proud boys and oath keepers? maybe the proud boyz has a much larger real estate portfolio than am aware, but am not seeing the juice for the squeeze. trump can't be elected President more than twice, so if he somehow won in 2024, what would be the point o' further appeasing a bunch o' working class white nationalists? HA! Good Fun!

continuing a theme from our recent simon and garfunkel linked vid am repeating our self, but am feeling the need to once again opine that tina weymouth never got the credit she deserved. HA! Good Fun! ps linked song is in our list o' top ten favorite song titles.

am not a stephen king fan, but after not liking a couple o' his novels, we discovered we enjoyed more than one o' his short stories. in any event, we won't be reading the new king novel, but we thought the rolling stone article were interesting. HA! Good Fun!

we don't follow ina garten... at all. however, at a cooking site we saw a link to an article where ina recommends store bought alternatives she always uses instead o' making from scratch. we saw pepperidge farm stuffing mix were included and figured we would give it a try. we were all set to find something to quibble 'bout regarding the dressing, but our post cooking concerns were extreme minor. the pepperidge farm stuffing mix is a bit salty but not excessive so-- am suggesting to avoid salted butter when preparing and make certain your chicken stock is low sodium... unless you like salty. proviso: we did not follow directions exact. after sautéing vegetables (we went a bit heavy on the celery and onion and next time would likely add mushrooms... maybe?) we added chicken stock and one egg yolk to the four cups o' stuffing mix and then cooked on the stovetop in a large skillet so we could better produce carbonized bits in the dressing. again, we tried to find complaints but is all minor. the bread cubes was small and we prefer a bit larger torn bread pieces. perhaps the dressing woulda' benefited from a smidge more thyme and sage? ordinarily our chicken/turkey dressing is a bit complex, but the pepperidge farm mix is easy and good. am doubting many posters make dressing frequent, but the ina suggestion is a time saver and results in a nice dressing which may easily be customized to suit individual tastes. aside, our new normal for making boneless and skinless chicken breasts is to buy those split and bone-in chicken breasts and then debone 'em our self. the resulting boneless-but-skin-on breast am finding is our ideal cooking option when am forced to prepare breasts. saw the method at atk. bonus: the leftover bones is great for making chicken stock. we pound the breasts flatish and then cook two-to-three salted/seasoned breasts skin side down in a large skillet. is becoming increasing difficult to find younger bird breasts here in california, so as often as not, even with a twelve inch skillet, am only able to fit two flattened breasts in the pan. once the chicken breasts are in a medium-high heat pan, we place a 5.5 qt. cast iron dutch oven on top o' the breasts, resulting in constant pressure and uniform pan contact. in our sooper-slick cast iron pan we need zero cooking oil as the skin renders enough fats to prevent any kinda sticking. with a stainless steel pan we require minimal oil. depending on thickness, we cook ~7.5 minutes before removing the dutch oven and flipping the chicken to cook reduced to medium for another seven-to-eight minutes. depending on the heat distribution o' your pan or hob, you may need rotate the chicken once-per-side so as to get even doneness. the skin helps keep the chicken moist and the pan leavings is perfect for gravy or any kinda chickeny pan sauce. if your dinner guest don't like skin, remove the offending organic matter after cooking, but pretty much all the fat from the skin is gonna have rendered out while cooking. HA! Good Fun!

lukas kristjanson was just laid off by bioware. the perversity of the universe tends towards the maximum

flip side o' kp hand-wringing over possible fifth columnist legislators Wisconsin Supreme Court flips liberal, creating a ‘seismic shift’ americans is so polarized that there is a few issues which result in disproportionate voter participation. crime fears benefits conservatives even in democrat strongholds. converse, abortion and trump is losing propositions for republicans even in otherwise red states. for the vast majority o' elected officials, their primary job is to seek reelection. overt betrayal by an elected legislator, judge, school board member or even dog catcher is gonna decrease the odds o' reelection for the individual who overt lied to voters. even with targeted gerrymandering which may fundamental alter the demographics o' a legislator's voters, nobody wants to be associated with fredo corleone. so unless the aspiring sith lord legislator is planning on a fox news gig, the kinda thing indulged by cotham in north carolina will be exceptional 'cause is ordinarily self defeating for anybody with future political ambitions. however, am thinking republicans and democrats need to wise up a bit and actual pay attention to their voters as posed to reading tweets from their most vocal supporters. in state after state, republicans is getting hammered on abortion and their unsubstantiated claims o' voter fraud. yeah, as improbable as it sounds, most republicans believe the 2020 election were stolen, but most independents do not share such beliefs and a significant % o' republicans are tired o' the voter fraud silliness. "most republicans" ain't anywhere near enough to carry tight races. same goes for progressives who is dismissive o' complaints about rampant crime or fears o' raising taxes. in the history o' forever, raising taxes and being soft on crime has been overwhelming loser positions. tell us 2023 fears about crime is largely manufactured hokum is so preaching to the choir. the reality is it doesn't matter if the fear is unjustified if voters remain afraid. for the past couple decades, republicans have been extreme successful at developing a unifying narrative for their base. is doubtful most boardies listen to conservative radio or watch fox news, but if you fix cars, repair roofs or drive trucks for a living, chances are you are the target audience o' the no-longer-so-alt right messaging which has become increasingly extreme in a relative short span o' time. to most educated liberals, rush's feminazi schtick seemed gross but silly in 2000. not funny anymore. not even fringe. republican messaging has been extreme effective such that we no longer have a shared reality about many basic facts in this country. covid? democrats has been far more splintered in their messaging. however, thanks to dobbs and trump, democrats got issues which unify them, bolster their resolve and even peel off a few conservative voters. is doubtful democrats are able to genuine unify to the degree you see with working class whites and republicans, and the last thing we wanna see is both parties going all in on campaigns o' fear and grievance, but am thinking democrats have a real opportunity to have a shared vision which they is able to communicate to voters. wisconsin's supreme court flip should be textbook. the change weren't managed with a fifth columnist or some other sleight o' hand. wisconsin republicans, like republicans in indiana, texas and elsewhere, went all-in on making access to abortion and voting more difficult. in response, democrats made republicans pay for their overt stoopid. HA! Good Fun!

two wolf and snow movie recommendations: and completely different fantastic cinematography from hiro narita. HA! Good Fun!

am ok with a single letter designation for the platform formerly known as twitter, but am thinking elon stopped just shy o' the appropriate identifier when progressing through the alphabetic sequence. "Y" would be a spot on name choice for not-twitter. HA! Good Fun!

nizo yamamoto cancer

yeah, it worked in the singular and highly limited scenario described. am not doubting somebody will try again, and is not as if this is the first time such a thing has happened in history neither. more than a few o' those individuals who flipped were doing so 'cause o' mercenary reasons. politicians first job is to get reelected and in part 'cause o' how scientific and analytical is gerrymandering these days, politicians may find their constituencies literal altered over night. however, as part o' a larger schem or plan, cotham is very much an exception. republicans did encourage tricia to run as a democrat, but am suspecting kp cherry picks from the story if he failed to notice the following: "republican leaders cultivated her before she ran and, seeing her growing estrangement, seized a chance to coax her across party lines." so, come up with all the factors which made possible and then replicate in a predictable fashion. as part o' a broader scheme, monumental paradigm shifts such as dobbs is the exception as 'posed to the rule... and again, in spite o' some folks needing to double-down, am gonna observe Gromnir pointed out that overturn roe was something neither the leadership o' democrats or republicans actual wanted, and particular on the national level, dobbs has been terrible for republicans. each time a republican candidate is asked if they would support extreme six-week bans, the ordinary response is a pivot. the kansas referendum on abortion should be illustrative as it failed 60:40. trump garnered 56% o' the kansas vote in 2020. on abortion, republicans is being forced to double-down on a loser issue which is why in north carolina they went an extreme route trying to find a fifth columnist who would advocate for bodily integrity. again, in part 'cause o' how gerrymandering works nowadays, you will always have a few candidates trying to play both sides o' the political divide. self preservation. the thing is, particular in 2023 as political rhetoric has become more extreme, is much more difficult for a candidate to successful sell themselves as a believable advocate o' the other guy's platform. so, to make work you need a political paradigm shift, a fundamental altering o' constituency, a level o' animosity 'tween a politician and their current party and a candidate who don't mind being compared to fredo corleone for the rest o' their life. am not shocked you is serious thinking cotham represents a new and insidious republican scheme on scale, but such don't appear credible. is also weird how the same people who deride politicians for their incompetence will simultaneous ascribe to them ingenious sooper villain plans. am personal dismissive o' conspiratorial thinking, but am s'posing we see the allure for a certain kinda person. as for name recognition... *snort* name recognition impact is not singular and exceptional. the impact o' name recognition has been observed and measured many times. for gawd's sake, trump had zero political experience when he started his pre 2016 run for President. armed with a bunch o' catchphrases and his b/c-list celebrity, trump managed to win his party nomination in part 'cause every time an establishment gop candidate dropped outta the race, trump picked up the largest % o' those political orphans. even today trump makes no attempt to hide the fact his business (political, real estate, or hawking steaks,) is 'bout promoting his brand. https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2017/07/star-power-in-politics Using data from Japan spanning from 1962 to 2013, Reeves found that when celebrities ran for seats in the upper house in national legislative elections (which have high levels of intraparty competition), they won more than half the time. But in elections for the same office run at the local (prefectural) level, which are held under different electoral rules involving fewer candidates and greater competition between parties, celebrities won less than a third of the time. When surveyed, Japanese voters overwhelmingly reject celebrities in the abstract, so the data, Reeves said, suggest “a disconnect between what voters say they want and what they end up doing in the voting booth.” Electoral rules that lead to large numbers of candidates from a single party, Reeves argued, create the conditions that favor the famous—thus “leading to outcomes that are at odds with voters’ own stated preferences.” check studies for political wins for dead people or the spouses o' recent dead candidates. kennedy is one o' the most recognized names in politics. one thing we all shoulda learned in the last few years is that there is thousands o' no-name bloggers who is just a loony and conspiratorial as is rfk jr. so, what sets kennedy apart? impact o' the kennedy name is not quite the age thing to which some millennials predictable offer a reflexive hand wave when dismissing. the fact young people is unaware o' jfk save for fact he were an President and a democrat icon helps rfk jr 'cause democrats had different values in the 60s compared to today. jfk rhetoric on military spending and immigration would shock the conscience o' 2023 progressives and even lindsey graham would hesitate to support such extremes. unfortunate, young people is just as much suckers for celebrity (more so) than is old people. is more than a few democrats who don't know sh!te about rfk jr but they know they don't like biden. if you don't like trump or biden, then you might be tempted to vote anybody else, and studies show name recognition is a big deal in such situations. there is also a significant % o' democrats who is just as loony as republicans in terms o' conspiracy silliness. conspiracy is not a middle-aged, white, republican disease. kennedy is gonna get votes 'cause o' his name and also 'cause many democrats think the government is not trustworthy, hiding from us the truth about covid and uap. so, tween name recognition and the fringe element o' the democrat party, could rfk jr shave off a few thousand votes who woulda' otherwise voted biden in a battleground state? seems far more likely than a wave o' cothams. HA! Good Fun!

a fan of mad max preparing to do something monumental stoopid? HA! Good Fun!

none o' this should be funny, but with trump, the ludicrous is normal. is not difficult imagining trump standing in front o' a bathroom mirror, practicing his mugshot. ... if in 2015 you had told us we would still be wasting oxygen on this buffoon in 2023, we woulda' dismissed the notion w/o a second thought, and that mistake is on us. is not shocking to us that disaffected working class whites glomped onto a political snake oil salesman's platform o' outrage and grievance, but am still baffled an incompetent b00b managed the trick particular w/o the presage o' a war or crisis (economic or otherwise) which ordinary accompanies the rise o' a demagogue. whatever. HA! Good Fun!

am a big fan o' the boxer "how are they doing that?" am not typical a fan o' highly produced music, but... HA! Good Fun!

cotham is an extreme limited state politics scenario and while a legit concern is not gonna be part o' some broad national scheme or strategy. again, did some folks already forget 2020? in spite o' the democrat handwringing over the overturn o' roe, one o' the reasons there were no red wave in the mid terms is 'cause o' a broader public rejection o' the Court's dobbs decision and the perception republicans were to blame for taking from americans an important fundamental right. however, am gonna concede rfk jr is more popular with undereducated conservatives than the vast majority o' people who voted for biden last cycle, but this so ain't 2000 and you give voters far too much credit in any event. first, tribalism is far different today than it were at the turn o' the century. core trump voters are not leaving him for any reason, not pu$$y grab, january 6 or four indictments. more disappointing is the recognition most republicans is similar gonna vote trump just so long as he is the gop candidate. one thing which hasn't changed since 2000 is that conservatives vote. incumbents always need be concerned with a spoiler but the problem is magnified for democrats. libs, particular young democrats, underrepresent and if you give 'em any reason to be ambivalent, bored or distracted, there is a good chance they will let you down. second, rfk jr mentioning bobby and jack every chance he gets is calculated. conspiracy minded independents may be the most animated supporters o' rfk jr, but rfk jr is gonna garner more than a few democrat votes for no reason other than recognition o' his last name. you serious think those republican mega donors would be contributing to a candidate who claims additives in drinking water is resulting in a spikes o' feminization in young boys and masculinization in girls if not for the kennedy name? on this message board we act as if facts and issues is important, but the reality is that for an all too large % o' the population, issues and facts is secondary... perhaps tertiary concerns. people need serious listen to interviews with real voters. aside, the main reason we believe rfk jr is a relative non factor at the moment (things can change) is 'cause while democrats is terrible at voting, trump is loathed. Nikki Haley calls Trump ‘most disliked politician in America’: ‘We can’t win a general election that way’ am not a nikki fan, but she is correct about trump. am having observed more than once trump is the only republican candidate am confident democrats will vote against, though desantis is fighting hard to achieve same boogieman status. but again, is only august o' 2023 and depending on the economy, hunter biden silliness or any number o' as yet unknowns could change the calculus for voters and then the kennedy name might be just enough to swing things in battleground states. at the moment, there is an equal if not greater opposite cotham effect at work in the US as the republican anti-woke nonsense and doubling down on the weaponization of the doj narrative is so not helping at-risk gop seats. democrats is gleeful cornering at-risk republicans, forcing 'em to public take a stand on such idiocy as "defund the fbi," knowing such is no-win for most gop candidates. the first wave o' jim crow legislation were a reaction to the not unreasonable fear o' southern democrats (times change, eh?) that an increasing educated and voting black minority would hurt the established power structure in many southern states. blacks represented 30% of the population in alabama in 1960 and the percentage were decreasing yearly, but exaggerated fears o' the threat to traditional values a voting black populace were used to bring about a reactionary wave. extremism o' those in power increased as the perceived threat to their power became more evident. the new jim crow in texas, and the rest o' the south, is all too familiar, but while it retains a racist core, the change which republicans choose to resist is inextricable linked to inevitable economic changes that mirror what california experienced decades past. every year texas shifts more towards a service based economy with an emphasis on tech. expect republicans in georgia, north carolina and texas to become more reactionary in the coming years. is why we study history. HA! Good Fun! ps while perhaps suffering from a bit o' oversimplification, voting and abortion laws in texas is ideal subject matter for exploration via a crt approach. is natural and predictable for the dominant demographic group, once they recognize a legitimate threat to their power, to double-down and attempt to reverse cultural and economic trends by means o' passing increasing draconian legislation.

two featuring the recent departed robbie robertson . rip

kp says he ain't worried 'bout rfk jr candidacy today, but am thinking such shows startling lack o' imagination and/or equal limited recollection o' history. the last couple Presidential elections has come down to tens o' thousands o' votes in a handful o' battleground states. in the case o' rfk jr, republicans ain't hoping rfk jr wins a democratic primary, but if he peels off a few thousand independent and democrat votes from an unpopular guy like biden in georgia or pennsylvania, will anybody be shocked? how many votes did trump ask for raffensperger to find in georgia? 11,780? some o' you is too young to recall, but you shoulda' learned in school that bush beat gore 'cause o' less than five hundred total votes. in a nation o' hundreds o' millions, a few hundred votes in florida determined the Presidency. kari lake, on the other hand, were the situation which had to have democrats thanking God/Satan/Xenu/Cthulhu that she didn't win. democrats pumped millions into her campaign believing she were unelectable, and their plan ultimately worked as something like 40k arizona folks who voted for republicans down ballot did not vote for kari lake. however, lake only lost by 17k votes and her rhetoric has steadily become adopted as the norm as 'posed to exceptional by arizona republicans. those who fail to learn from history... HA! Good Fun!

aside, seeing as how more than 50% o' rfk jr's campaign money is coming from republican mega donors, am thinking he deserves a spot on the debate stage, although he may not meet the minimum number of individual contributors requirement. regardless, republicans is spending a whole lotta dough on a sham candidate and am thinking they deserve to have their contribution recognized. reverse side o' the same coin, if democrats continue to fund extremist republican candidates in the belief those candidates may win primaries but will lose against moderate democrats in a general election, am thinking those democrat funded "republican candidates" should likewise appear to debate democrats, although am not sure any 2020 national office republican saw more than 50% funding come from democrats, so is not exact an apples-to-apples comparison with rfk jr. am kidding but am nevertheless thinking it is kinda contemptable behaviour to intentional promote perceived unelectable candidates. the extremist candidates such as rfk jr and the host o' gibbering election denial and anti-abortion lunatics who got mowed down in the midterms, is set up to undermine electable moderate candidates and there is no doubt the scheme has proven effective. however, am thinking it is hypocritical to condemn the extremism o' your political adversaries if you is spending millions o' dollars promoting your opponent's most fringe challenging candidates regardless o' the efficacy o' the stratagem. in any event, am thinking it would be fun to see who 'tween vivek ramaswamy and rfk jr could abase themselves to the qanon element most effective on a national stage. am suspecting giorgio tsoukalos' head might explode if he watched those two metaphorical race to the bottom in their effort to embrace far-fetched pseudo-logic. HA! Good Fun!

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23925061-govuscourtsflsd6486541290?responsive=1&title=1 To be sure, the Messino court “decline[d] to create a per se rule against excluding evidence to remedy a conflict of interest,” id. at 830 (citing United States v. Diozzi, 807 F.2d 10 (1st Cir. 1986)), but Nauta has not identified any case, and the Government is unaware of one, in which a court has excluded evidence to avoid a conflict on facts remotely similar to this case, where the Government put Mr. Woodward on notice long ago about potential conflicts, and he is now seeking to affirmatively use those conflicts to gain a tactical advantage at trial by excluding highly incriminating evidence to the benefit of not only his own client but also a co-defendant (Trump) whose PAC is paying his legal fees. The Court should not countenance this maneuver. jack smith, in most polite way possible, suggesting defendants and judge cannon is talking out their seeming collective kiester. when the mar-a-lago documents case got started, we tried to give aileen canon the benefit o' the doubt, but such deference did not last long as her rulings from the bench evidenced either unconscionable bias for a defendant or gross incompetence regarding knowledge of the law. time suggests cannon's curious behaviour were an alchemy o' both bias and incompetence. and the hits keep coming. judge cannon is giving the appearance o' acting as an advocate for trump. when the appellate court rejected her reasoning for appointing a special master and denying the government access to evidence seized during a warrant search which even trump's attorneys were not arguing was improper, they chastised her rather forceful. unfortunate, judge cannon thus far appears to have learned nothing from her earlier appellate rebuke. is possible judge cannon digs in and forces another appellate intervention on the appropriateness o' a garcia hearing for which there is no real support for the defendant's position. a second predictable brutal rebuke from an appellate court might be enough to get aileen removed from the case. alternatively, judge cannon might grant the doj request thus avoiding another appellate showdown, thus allowing her to continue to wreck havoc from the bench. cannon also canceled a hearing regarding a protective order to address the multiple defendant's ability to view classified and national secret documents and artifacts as part o' discovery. cannon did not reschedule the hearing. canceled. wtf? the government cannot release documents until there is some kinda protective order decision and so discovery is effective stopped... indefinite. the dominant voice in our head is a cynic and am thinking the garcia stoopid and the protective order hearing is a sign o' things to come. am a bit curious to see how cannon deals with the garcia hearing 'cause we don't see any way the 11th circuit finds for the defendant and another blistering appellate rebuke o' cannon could be justification for jack smith to seek her removal from the case. HA! Good Fun!

cnn article only brief mentions the artemis accords which is unfortunate. am knowing musk has been talking 'bout mars, but lunar south pole exploration is kinda the next big thing; the US plan for a manned mars trip always assumed an initial return to the moon at the lunar south pole. the presence o' frozen water in perpetual shadowed craters at the moon's south pole is a hoped for discovery and the discovery o' mineable water in meaningful quantities would make some kinda lunar outpost far more practical in the future. so, with the india rover soon to get underway, we got our fingers crossed and am hoping for news o' billions years old comet residue to be discovered by india in the dusty surface o' some nameless lunar crater, locked away in unfathomable darkness which has endured since long before humans or even dinosaurs evolved... and thanks to the artemis accords, news and tech support for the endeavor is gonna be shared 'mongst many cooperating nations. congrats and good luck to india. HA! Good Fun!

make bg3, bg2, bg1 with the iwd2 rules implementation would be something we would pay good money to see. aside, am knowing you dislike bards and perhaps if we saw bg3 implementation we would also like 'em less. however, we will observe the best bg2 stronghold quest were bard, but 'cause almost nobody played as a bard, all that content were wasted. last time we personal played a d&d bard were d20 and we thought it were fun. we also played and had fun with bard archetypes in pathfinder pnp: dwarven scholar & detective. we got good will built up for bards. converse, years o' pnp experience has resulted in our reflexive dislike o' druids, a class almost invariably played as some kinda annoying hippie wannabe or as a 20th/21st century ecoterrorist. if somebody says they is gonna play a druid as part o' a pnp group, it takes effort for us to stifle a groan. have never once seen somebody play a druid other than cliché or cartoon. drizz't mucked up the ranger class for many players, but to be fair, 2nd edition went all in on the drizz't silliness by adding dual-wield as a class feature. even so, were drow fan boys and not tsr who added lame to the class. ranger has been busted ever since 2nd edition. paladins is rare played well, but am admitting we has seen exceptions to a general trend. we ordinarily avoid druids, rangers and paladins in d&d crpgs cause o' our dislike o' how they is played in pnp... which doesn't actual make much sense. irrational doesn't change the fact we tend to avoid those three classes. HA! Good Fun!

is not bad to slavish follow a recipe. the first time we prepare a dish, we near always follow recipes as written or described. if you like how the dish came together, then is no reason to make changes to instructions provided in the recipe. the thing is, am finding we frequent make changes to recipes based on personal taste as well as our accumulated cooking knowledge. is often ways to achieve improved results by changing a described process or ingredients, but one should understand both the impact o' process and the qualities o' ingredients when making such changes. understanding process and ingredients is also helpful when ingredients is not readily available. try and find decent tasso at a market in the sacramento valley. good luck. making tasso requires minimum three days; our recipe calls for seven days. when we make red beans and rice, chances are we skip the tasso, but am recognizing what the tasso brings to the dish, so am able to fake the smoke and tang from the pickled meat. it don't take much imagination to add cheese curds to an online or cookbook recipe calling for cheese curds. as 'posed to slavish following an established recipe you took no personal part in creating, am suspecting gordon ramsey would be a bit more impressed if you convinced a group o' self-appointed wisconsin cheese pundits that the meal they just enjoyed contained cheese curds without using cheese curds. just sayin. unrelated, we had an ez cassoulet for dinner... multi-beans (royal corona, tarbais and great northern,) couple handfuls o' torn bread pieces (small pieces) from a two-day-old baguette, tomatoes (roma and cherry,) summer squash, corn and bacon were the main ingredients. we used a fair amount o' garlic and finished with fresh basil and grated parmesan. we use our insta pot to pre-cook the beans which is so much easier than an overnight soak followed by cooking. the beans require a bit less than an hour in the insta pot and is complete hands-off during cooking. the summer squash and corn cassoulet recipe we have calls for mint but we used basil. guess what? the meal were delicious even w/o mint. go figure. HA! Good Fun!

saw headlines and instant wondered if the scientist had "fallen" out o' a window or been poisoned. HA! Good Fun!

gonna admit we always thought the cheese curd hype from wisconsin folks were more imagination than real. tested our theory by making poutine for acquaintances from midwest/wisconsin. showed 'em the packaging from the sooper expensive cheese curds we got shipped from wisconsin-- two varieties. served our guests two kinda poutine, but one option were not cheese curds but rather a Gromnir house substitute involving provolone and mozzarella. when we asked our guests/guinea pigs which slight melty and covered with gravy "cheese curds" were better/more authentic, three outta four preferred our knockoff mozzarella and provolone substitute, and nobody recognized the mozz + porvolone as fraudulent. we didn't spoil the meal by informing our guests they had been used to test a pet theory. everybody left satisfied, especial Gromnir. HA! Good Fun! ps guests also preferred restaurant quality deep fried frozen fries as 'posed to made-from-scratch fries... though am admitting we did not have access to kennebec potatoes which is the variety o' tater am believing makes the best french fries. we didn't do any sorta switcheroo on the fries. not doing deceptive with fries were intentional sleight o' hand on our part as our guests were focused more on looking to determine which fries were genuine so they overlooked the possibility we had done something sneaky with the cheese.

ad&d bards were idiotic with the triple class nonsense. 2e bards were suck. we actual liked d20 bards, but only if we had a dm who made skill checks meaningful. 4e skalds made decent leaders, but almost nobody liked 4e, so... 5e bards? the most obvious criticism we got o' d&d 5e bards is that they is too good at too many different things. parental marital status aside, am observing just how stacked is 5e bards. as charisma characters with skill bonus abilities which makes 'em a good choice as a face character, bards is an excellent choice for a single-player crpg such as bg3. bards are also full casters who are able to cherry pick the best spells from other classes. with one level o' life cleric, bards is elite healers if you wanna go that route and regardless they may provide a party a few o' the best buffs available in 5e. no, bards ain't as good as fighters in weapon combat, but they is solid and may be built better than solid if you need to be an elite weapon-haver. the bard class has many pros and few cons. am not planning on playing bg3 anytime soon, but if/when we do decide to give bg3 a chance, our likely first character will be a valor bard. sure, a halfling valor bard dual-wielding hand crossbows is ridiculous, but ridiculous is a selling point from our pov. we will note how the luck quality o' halflings is serious underappreciated. sure, hobbits don't fit the power fantasy image many players is trying to create with their bg3 avatar, but from a numbers pov, halfling luck is win. make intelligence a dump stat and choose drums. name animal. if it makes you feel better, chances are we go dark urge which in a sense is bastard territory given the requisite dubious parentage. HA! Good Fun!

the last two years haven't been bad for wildfires in norcal. nevertheless, more than a few insurance companies called it quits. if you wanna live in most o' el dorado, placer, nevada or sierra counties, it may be difficult to secure home insurance which isn't cost prohibitive... may be functional impossible for new homes in certain areas, although the fair plan does offer a kinda respite. our residence is foothills, so the mountains is a short trek removed. is amazing how much difference a fifteen minute drive east on highway 50 makes in terms o' surrounding greenery and decreased summer temps. HA! Good Fun!