iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I mostly cheer for Mercedes in #f1, but I adore Ollie Bearman (Haas). Pretty sure he was a golden retriever in a past life. What an adorable, goofy man.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Time to spend the better part of an hour on the phone with United Healthcare! Random PT appointment is not being covered, despite the ones the week before and the week after have a $30 copay.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

went with “roast a pile of random vegetables from the market” for dinner tonight. Zucchini, a couple tiny eggplants, handful of sweet red peppers, some cauliflower florets, quartered Roma tomatoes. Salt, pepper, serve over rice. Voila! Crisper drawer ready for CSA pickup tomorrow.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Didn’t stay awake for the Bahrain GP (but in Malaysia!) qualifying sessions at 2am. Hoping I can manage to watch the race at 1am tonight Because it promises to be chaotic and surprising. Fingers crossed for George and Kimi to get some points.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

my oldest teen just asked me “do you know about the cat Miette?” Child, I was there.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Okay, new grading weirdness. Background: I TA an intro earth science class that often has a chunk of math-phobic or avoidant students. Latest lab was comparing energy and power and used running up a staircase at different paces to explore it.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Last trays of peppers are out of the freeze dryer, now 4 qts of posole verde and 3 qts of hatch green chile sauce are either in the freeze dryer or in the freezer waiting their turn. Next step is pureeing 20lbs of Romas tonight.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Turns out, if your house has spent part of its life being switched back and forth from single family to duplex to (maybe?) triplex and back to single family, the property tax records can be kinda fucked up. Turns out you can petition to have them fixed and the part you overpaid refunded.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Currently at the ”vat of green chile sauce“ part of my weekend. 2nd set of freeze dryer trays (2 bell peppers, 2 chopped serranos) are in process.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Our household has been covid- and flu-proofed* for the winter *not quite, but good enough for government work.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

canning sale pickup day from a local organic farm. All 5lbs of bell peppers and 1lb of 5lbs of serranos are processed. 4 trays in freeze dryer. When the first batch finishes tomorrow, I’ll move the next 4 trays in, process the rest of the serranos, and make green chile sauce with the roasted hatch.

Box of tomatillos, box of roma tomatoes, bags of green bell peppers, shishitos, and serranos. Photo taken from above showing everything sitting on my blue-grey kitchen linoleum.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

glad I dragged myself out of bed for the f1 grand prix this morning. Absolute nail biter of a race. I was hoping russell would win and antonelli would work his way up into the points, so all my dreams came true.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I have been informed by my 17y/o that Tumblr & AO3 are married? And Tumblr proposed via tweet? this conversation started because I just saw Coyote v Acme, and his response was “oh, I know about it because everyone ships coyote & roadrunner on tumblr.”

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I can't keep complaining about grading, so I'll lay off it after this, but I *hate* grading this particular class that I'm TA'ing.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Dumbass Me, as a baby grad student who barely understood anything, made decisions about how I calculated grain size distribution for my model. Those decisions were Very Wrong, and may explain why I have spent 2 years with my sed transport model doing bizarre things.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Really need my youngest to power through the last couple weeks of online geometry so it can drop off the list of things I pester him about.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

@mostlybree.kitrocha.com I’m about to drown in tomatillos, and one of my favorite things to make with them is posole. If I want to freeze dry something stew-like, do I concentrate it and pour it into the trays? then I guess break it into chunks and store with reconstitution instructions?

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I am extra annoyed as a TA when students argue about their grades enough to go over my head to the professor, who then has to spend even more time to say “this is a reasonable grade and I’m not going to undermine my TA”

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

My youngest is about to complete an online intermediate python class, and he’s starting a high-school level counting & probability class with the same program. Highly recommend Art of Problem Solving if your kid needs something to supplement regular school!

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

@foximoxie.bsky.social hey can you follow me so I can DM you about Flytrap?

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

appropriately Scottish gin made it home successfully. (How pure can it be if there’s a monster swimming around in it?)

A sticker on top of a wooden stopper in a bottle of gin. The sticker says “ made from the purest water sourced directly from Loch Ness”

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I forgot that have to pick up my checked bag and go through customs in Denver before I catch my flight to Missoula. fingers crossed that 1.5hrs is enough.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

In London for the evening. Anyone have a clue what I’m seeing here? They have a drum line accompaniment. I’m near Kings Cross Station.

A photo of about 20 people parading down a busy London sidewalk wearing full length, flowy crushed red velvet outfits with turban-ish headpieces of the same fabric. The outfits have a vaguely Bedouin or Arabian feel to the design, but the color is fire engine red. Their faces are also completely painted white, almost like mimes but without the eye and lip highlighting. Oh, and there’s a drum line following them, but they got stuck at the red light after the costumed people crossed.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Just watched a guy in line behind me wipe/pick his nose, look at it, and put it under the counter we’re standing at. I gave him A Look, but he seemed immune. 🤢

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Also, I got a shoutout for Best ECR Poster, which was crazy unexpected, but super validating. People who study the same thing I do think I am doing something interesting!

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

In a Scottish bar in the highlands, drinking Scottish gin and waiting to meet up for the last night with ppl from the extremely niche, extremely relevant to my interests conference.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

So, Irn Bru reminds me of Big Red. but, orange.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

O’Hare is absolutely massive, but somehow contains nothing useful and barely any food. one of my least favorite airports.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Tomorrow I start an epic journey involving planes and trains to hopefully end up in the Scottish highlands by Saturday evening. Please send good travel vibes or prayers to your preferred traveled-related saint for intercession on my behalf.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I am teetering on the edge of functional with my anxiety today. And I have zero wiggle room in my schedule this week for collapse/dysfunction because I'm traveling to Scotland on Friday, which adds another worry to my anxiety. This can only end well.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Perseids tonight! Clouds are staying away, so we’ll head out about 10:30pm to our favorite superfund-adjacent dirt road for sky watching.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Teenager crow (left) likes to put his peanuts in the water to crack the shells and break them apart. I wonder if it’s because pieces don‘t go flying when he smashes them with his beak.

Two crows on the dying grass-covered ground around a shallow water dish. The crow on the left has one foot on the edge of the dish after having just exited after using the water to contain his peanut snacks while he ate.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Switched one of my sour cream container on-fence water bowls with a cool whip container because the crows are *thirsty*

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

New adventure appliance! Got a freeze dryer after being influenced by @mostlybree.kitrocha.com, so now I have to decide what I want to freeze dry first! Candy? Winter Squash chips? Plums from my neighbor?

A large green and black box on a small pallet containing a small Harvest Right freeze dryer. The pallet is sitting in my backyard on a furniture dolly. My son and I were gathering the enthusiasm to haul the 164lb contents downstairs our basement Stairs of Death.

The black freeze dryer with clear door set up on a basement workbench. You can see the 4 trays of bread that they recommend running as a first batch.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Also feeling very stuck with youngest while staring down another school year. He is frighteningly brilliant, but struggles with transitions and ”pointless” tasks. So having to switch classes all day and complete things like exit tickets are huge struggles.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

My youngest is about to turn 15. This is breaking my brain.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Sometimes it’s a leftover-rice-with-random-leftover-ramen-seasoning-packet kinda day. I made it ✨fancy✨ with freeze dried veggies from immi and some chopped hot peppers and tomatoes from my garden.

A bowl of soupy rice with a colorful mix of green & yellow sliced peppers, red diced tomatoes, and rehydrated green onion & carrot bits.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

My sister’s cow had a surprise baby! They tried to breed their little herd of 3 for Feb/March babies, and those arrived on schedule, but apparently Wilma didn’t like that timing. It’s very cute!

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

The ADHD brain’s lack of sense of time is going to be the death of my middle kid. He’s 17, and yet thinks that 2 minutes is enough time to get dressed (including socks!), brush teeth, take meds, pack his bag, and get out the door.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Teenager Crow is yelling loudly at the pigeons on the fence, I think because he wants to check out the snack box they’re sitting in. I did not think crows were intimidated by pigeons, but this crow is also very deferential to squirrels too.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I love that I can ask my oldest to supervise the cat outside and he patiently waits with her while she sunbathes and then follows her around as she does her walkabout the outside of the house.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

7 weeks and counting since my CoolerMaster liquid cooled CPU cooler arrived at their location for warranty repair. 8wks since their last response on my ticket, despite multiple messages. I also sent a new support request to try and get a new ticket. No answer.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

All the cool kids are up at 1am figuring out how to make the persistent storage volume on a GPU cluster sync the correct files, right?Everyone loves terminal!

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Man, tough day for shipped food in our house. Had to get a refund from Martie because the canned tomatoes crushed the tomato sauce cartons, causing tomato-based mold on the Mac & cheese boxes. Then got an Amazon refund because chocolate protein drinks crushed the ramen noodle bowls.

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

While I’m super grateful that our local fires are mostly under control at this point, the fact that they’re still raging in Washington and Oregon and Idaho means that our air is very chewy today

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Claire Gilder @clarbar.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Oh hey, everything in our freezer is mush. I love throwing out hundreds of dollars of food. And it’ll take 3-5 days to find a tech b/c LG doesnt have any in our area. If we call out regular appliance repair ppl, it’ll void the warrant.

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