Ape yawns

Hate jet lag. Iceland is 4 hours ahead of my time zone so I was awake waaaaaay too early. However, that gives me time to get this place into shape.

does some dusting, washes floors, replenishes condiments, all the while whistling a merry tune

For coffee, here's a Nicaraguan dark roast from the fine ladies at Las Chicas del Cafe in St. Thomas, Ontario. Teas are Aged Earl Grey (new flavour I discovered, it's Earl made with Assam rather than Ceylonese tea) and Red Rose. Pitchers are washed and refilled with iced tea and lemonade.

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood morning!

And for verbal:

Yes, a smiling cake is a bit creepy. But this is verbal we are talking about.

Peaches (and I think the bear has mentioned elsewhere that the Ontario crop is in so yum)

Peaches on their own or in a dessert?

Good evening. I am back from the Great White North. Or did I return to the Great White North. Hard to tell. I saw a hell of a lot more ice and snow in Iceland than we have here in July, anyhow. But come January, we will likely even that playing field.

To go with the Goji cookies, some nice hot, strong coffee. Not quite radioactive but should wake you up and get you roaring. Teas are Scottish Breakfast and Russian Caravan (nice and smoky, like Tokyo after a visit from you know who).

Still in the land of fire and ice. Might have a story idea coming together. New adventure for the cast of The Spirits of Tan Maldrin that uses Iceland as inspiration for the setting.

Streaming. Vinyl has its charm and unique sound but you can't scratch a stream.

Music or podcast?

Trey - Trek

Quote by Molly
In honor of me watching Godzilla (1954) here are some cookies.

Ah, the classics. Need a watch of that again myself.

Makes coffee and English Breakfast tea. Pours a tea and takes a cookie.

Saw whales today. Humpbacks and dolphins.

Quote by verbal
He uses a circular saw

Welp, that confirms it. Verbal is evil.😈😉😆

Good morning. Coffee is a nice strong brew courtesy of my last hotel. Teas are Birchall Earl Grey and English Breakfast. Birchall is a new brand I just discovered but apparently dates back to 1872. Cold beverages are on for those in places warmer than here.

There, took advantage of my time zone advantage to get everything ready before you lot are even up.

Have a good one!

And the rumours that I was swallowed by the volcano are entirely false.😁

Quote by AnnaMayZing

I didn't know we had a Flash Erotica category! 😲

Oops. Another missed edit. 😉😆

Ape walks in, takes off crampons and helmet, pours a cup of Tumultuous Tortie.

Yep I hiked a glacier today. Right under one of the biggest flipping volcanoes on the planet that is overdue to blow by about three decades (it used to erupt every 40-70 years but it has now been 105 years since the last one). And I can see its glacier from my hotel room tonight.

Ice ape out.

Quote by KatarinaTechgoddess
She's 17 now and still has grumpy moments.

You want to see and old cat get grumpy? Get a young, lively dog. Yeah, we made that mistake. I still remember the time the dog was dashing about playing or losing his f-ing mind or something and a paw shot out from a chair to rake his back as he flew by. She was already ten or so when we got him and she outlived him by a year or so.

😼

I found the best solution for heat and humidity. Visit Iceland. I haven't seen high temps this low since probably April or early May. The wind off the Atlantic makes downright chilly at times.

I didn't think we used character counts at all now, just word counts. <=100 is micro, 100-1000 is flash, 1000 is then the minimum for everything else. But, yeah, some clarity and maybe an update of that page would be a good idea.

Fade - Fane

Quote by verbal

Ape, are you really off to Iceland!? There's a big volcano there, like right now! Will you get to see it? That sounds amazing, but be careful! Bucket list stuff.

https://apnews.com/article/iceland-volcano-eruption-tourists-e997b7293f20322033649e42236df2c0

My tour doesn't actually go through that area (it's the same area as the eruptions last year and in 2021, just a bit further North) but the company does offer tours to the lava fields from those eruptions including a visit to this one. They were just waiting for the authorities to open it for tourism. So maybe if we run out of things to see on our first few days when we are just hanging in Reykjavik dealing with 4 hours of lag (they operate on GMT). And it might be visible from the highway that runs from Keflavik (where the international airport is located) to Reykjavik which I shall be traversing after arrival.

Good morning! I am still around but not for much longer. There's some nice Nicaraguan dark roast from Las Chicas in the coffee pot. There's an English Breakfast and Cream of Earl Grey in the teapots. Pitchers are washed and refilled with fresh iced tea and lemonade.

Quote by DenimAngel
Yay it's the All Star game and the Braves have 8 players that are all stars !!!!

Congrats to the Braves. Just heard that the Jays closer had to pull out of the all-star game with an injury. Bummer for him, I guess.

Wind - Wine

It's got to be Monday ... Monday ...

And I don't have to go to work. Vacation is under way, though I don't start my trip for a few more days.

Coffee is a Costa Rican medium roast, hot and ready in the pot. Teas are Sunday Tea and Red Rose. Iced tea and lemonade are refreshed in the fridge.

And my musical discovery of the month is ... Ankor. It's an alt-metal band from Spain that's a couple decades old. The current lineup features a terrific English singer-songwriter named Jessie Williams on vocals (harsh, clean, and occasional rapping) as well as writing a lot of the lyrics. The remainder of the lineup is mostly Spanish, with David Romeu and Fito Martinez on guitar and Julio Lopez on bass, save the amazing drummer Eleni Nota who hails from Athens, Greece. Guitarist David Romeu writes a lot of the music and directs most of their videos.

Sine - Sane

Everybody's working for the weekend! So said Loverboy back in 1982. Still true forty years later, I think. And here we are, at the weekend.

I've brewed some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe for the coffee set and Scottish Breakfast and Sunday Tea for the teapot crowd. Cold drinks are iced tea, lemonade, and assorted sodas. I see the minimarshmallows have vanished. Sara must have taken them home for baking purposes.

Pink - Wink

Oo, something's up in the verbal household. Now you've got us all in suspense, amigo.

Gorgeous here today. That's why I moved the office outside.

Eek! A cardinal just buzzed the table where I'm working en route to their nest. Went so fast I couldn't even see if it was the male or the female. Got to watch where I am going, I guess, or I might end up with a beak embedded in me.

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorning!!!!!

Coffee is in the pot. It's a Nicaraguan dark roast. Over in the teapots, there's some Earl Grey and Scottish Breakfast. Iced tea and lemonade are mixed up fresh in the fridge. And for some bizarro reason, a shipment of minimarshmallows showed up. Shit, will these keep until Fall? I told them to put the standing order on hold from May to October.

Anyhow, I am working on my deck with a family of cardinals chirping away above me. Every time Mom and Dad show up, the chicks go nuts. Amazing what loud voices they already have.

Later.

So what might it sound like if the wonderful soprano metal singer Marcela Bovio fronted Nightwish? Kind of like this, I guess. A lovely vocal cover by Marcela of the band's song "Sleeping Sun", a favorite of mine.

Quote by verbal
I start with character (which is why I'm so bad at plotting)

Yeah, I kind of do, too, at times. Or I start with a plot point that then dictates the character(s). I mean, the whole Chronicles of Tana the Healer started with, "what if a world's Dark Lord had a child and they had to deal with their father's legacy long after his fall". Everything else, including the child being a daughter, her being the one who killed her father, and so on kind of built from there.

Ape is here, ape is here!

One week until my vacation. Will be offline (mostly) for 12 days or so while I tour the icy realm of, well, Iceland. There's even a volcano that might blow before or during my visit in my honour. Okay, not in my honour, but the timing is nice. I like volcanoes as long as they are in someone else's backyard. It has been fairly well argued that they are one of the things that makes our planet habitable.

For now, here's some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee for the coffee crowd, Irish Breakfast and Lemon for the tea junkies, and iced tea and lemonade for those seeking more frigid delights. Later.

Quote by verbal

Nice premise.

Much as it is one. There's more, including speculation about the aliens they are fighting (are they biological or are they AI like BSG Cylons) and the lead being from an elite unit (sniper with a gun that's basically a handheld cannon).

Sunk - Sung

Cardio. I need CV fitness more than I need to be able to benchpress a semi. 😜

Gym or home?

Quote by verbal
Gonna trying pantsing a novel - meaning writing by the seat of my pants.

Honestly, I find a computer or pen and paper works better than pants but you do you. 😜🤣

Quote by verbal
I sometimes get the sense that only the right is thought to be patriotic in the US, and wanted to walk the walk.

Here, too. My perception, though, is that the right is really more about unquestioning patriotism (much like they are more likely to lean to an inerrant, infallible Bible in religious life) while the center and left are more prone to see patriotism as including asking and working through tough questions about things like colonialism and slavery.