So this is the previous…
This is the progress …
And this is the goal.
A lot to dislike and undo. Hmph.
Putting the TMI in absentminded
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Weekly Paint Progress: 2/5/2026
2 comments on Weekly Paint Progress: 2/5/2026
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Friend #3 is on the cusp
Friend #3 is the only one of the Numbered Friends still at TeddyJ. And even that will not last for long: today was the first of her two (two!) two retirement parties.
It was well attended by thirty coworkers from the last 18 years, and they all went around and shared stories of her generosity and expertise.
My turn came early and, instead of sharing a work story, I related this story of how we saw a man dressed as a slice of pizza and she made me laugh so hard no noise came out.
She was appalled, and said immediately, “I’ve known you since the nineties and that’s all you’ve got?”
“Well, you make me laugh,” I said. And I know she would have preferred I talk about her technical acumen, but she’s my friend first and my co-worker second. And every time someone said how much they’d miss her, I thought, “I’ll see her at music trivia on the 20th.”
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Dress code
I saw a man in a hat recently. At work. The idea. Brazenly wearing a hat in mixed company at work.
And not a sedate and modest hat, like a bowler, or a deerstalker.
No.
The man was wearing the most provocative of all hats.
A fedora.
At. Work.
Here I am, stitching up necklines so I do not appear untoward, while men get no criticism as they publicly clap on a fedora, with the excuse — I suppose — that it is winter and they are headed into the cold.
What is next? Vests? Spats? Even more clothing until every man is parading around like Cary Grant? It’s very distracting.
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A series of related events led to this post
Event 1: Well, the porn sites in Missouri did not like the recent restrictions requiring that people give proof of age. As a result, any visit to any site, no matter how female-friendly, ethical, or plot-driven, is blocked by a message that until things change in Missouri, no porn will play in your state, no matter how far over eighteen you are.
Event 2: I sent my sympathies to Gary over this state of affairs and he scoffed, “I can get anything I want on Google,” then showed me images of long-legged thick-haired naked woman who looked thirty at least.
Event 3: I decided to see if Google would give me anything I want, and what I want is what would send a good Catholic boy to hell. I saw a few videos that showed men employing a variety of sex toys (Fleshlites, if you are inclined to Google it).
Event 4: Google summoned up more videos of men using sex toys and God in Heaven, their toys are weird.
- A “realistic oral pleasure device”, which was a silicone mouth bulging from the end of a long handle, with pretty lips (sure), a flat toungue (naturally) and upper and lower TEETH (why God why).
- An “anime” silicone doll that was 80% bosom, 10% legs and arms, and 5% head (obviously).
- The same as above but with apertures. An aperture in the vulva area, an aperture in the mouth area, and apertures in the NIPPLE AREAS. Seriously! Talk about dolls providing unrealistic expectations.
Event 5: That did me in. Gary heard me wheeze with laughter as I watched the big masturbating man pounce on the bouncy booby doll and push his member into its breast. I tried to show Gary what was so funny but he ran.
Event 6: I remembered just last Christmas, Gary went on a purge and discovered a bag of my sex toys that had fallen into disfavor, including Old Pink. I thought they were long gone!
So I lined them up and took a photo. They don’t look funny at all.
Photo after the jump.
(more…)
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TWIL: WHY redheads are more sensitive to pain
Gary is a redhead. I didn’t realize it because he looks towheaded in his black and white childhood photos, and he was a brownhead by his late twenties when I met him. But in the rare color photos from his teens, he was a freckle-free Irish lad with dark auburn hair and a red beard. And of course, he’s all silver now. This means that I have a type: sixty percent of my long-term boyfriends have been redheads. While I sadly never got the chance to see Gary’s red hair in real life, I must have sensed it in my genes.
This week I read that redheads have a mutated MC1R gene, and the same gene makes them more sensitive to pain.
Gary told me in the eighties that redheads feel more pain, but here you go, a scientific paper with more information fairly hot off the press:
They need more Novocaine, yet less opioids. The one time I saw Gary take Oxycodone he said it made him too loopy.
It makes me wonder if it would be helpful for doctors to know he was a redhead once.
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Missed opportunity, NASA
NASA has delayed the Artemis II launch two days, from February 6th to the 8th. The delay was originally because of problems with the “wet rehearsal”. We already did have three astronauts die in a fire during a rehearsal, so good job learning from history.
Now today I hear that it was actually delayed because of extreme cold at the launch site, calling to mind the Challenger explosion.
It’s starting to sound like this is all contrived to give the public retroactive faith in NASA. The only things that can make me more suspicious is if they actually say the words, “Wait until April.”
Or possibly, it’s not PR. Maybe they really have learned. But if the next delay is because they want to be sure the foam is secure on the booster then I will raise an eyebrow to unparalleled heights.
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I participate in the national blackout by accident
There was a call today for citizens to boycott work, school, shopping, etc. to protest I.C.E. (”Immigration and Customs Enforcement” emphasis on “FORCE”).
I did boycott all these things today. What I did not boycott was my bathroom, because what actually took me out all day was an awful, awful stomachache.
I am running the dishwasher and doing some laundry right now. That’s how bad.
I was so busy being sick for hours that I didn’t even hear about the boycott. However, if anyone asks it will have been protesting I.C.E. just as violently as I could.
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Weekly Paint Progress: 1/29/2026
So this is the previous…
This is the progress …
And this is the goal.
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Support
Last Wednesday, the day I had the unexpected visit to the eye doctor, Gary had an issue with our new pharmacy refusing to fill his B-12 prescription. This led to an unfortunate conversation in which Gary almost simultaneously said both “STOP BEING A BABY ABOUT YOUR EYE” and “MOMMY TAKE CARE OF MY B-TWELF PWOBLEM l’M SICK.”
Later that day I was heading to the store after work, and instead of calling to ask, “Hey, want anything at the store” I called to say how we had not been very nice to each other that morning and we need to take time to support each other, and to that end, I wanted to know if he wanted to have me pick up anything for him at the store.
He started to laugh and confessed he was in the store’s parking lot walking back to his car with a full basket of groceries and was absolutely not going back in to get me anything.
I laughed too, somehow. Perhaps because it was a half-breakthrough: he fully knows now I feel the support is one-sided, even though on the other hand, nothing at all is going to change.
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Roomba bankruptcy
I was gutted to hear that Roomba’s parent company, iRobot, is going into bankruptcy.
Mom and I were both early Roomba adopters. I still have the early virtual “walls” from my first one. I currently have \ a heavy-duty basement Roomba, a pet model ground floor Roomba, and a mopping “Scooba”.
I know there are other vacuuming and mopping robots. It seems a shame to buy one now given that Gary delights in running the combo sweeper/dustbuster every other day.
I’ll keep the basement ones exercised and use Gary as my … Goomba.