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Mostly Harmless

@toadlily.bsky.social
985 followers 2.1K following 2.8K posts

Herding cats until the waveform collapses. Mostly harmless, but do note that both my grandfathers killed fascists. GenX. Слава Україні. Meese is still a pig. #OurFlagMeansDeath #ofmd #UglyDogs

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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Two Julie follows in two days!
Bsky notification screen, announcing that one of the Julie followbot accounts has chosen me! This is the second one in a couple of days!
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Here's my coaster.
Cork coaster with cartoon Ed Teach in chef hat, holding a snake coiled around a skewer. He is saying "Snake Snacks!"
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Whelp, this is exactly right.
Map of US showing that I'm probably from the intersection of Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. Which is right.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Higo Award for SemiProZine goes to Uncanny Magazine. Shine on, Space Unicorns! Auto-captioning is running a lil amok btw. Neil Clarke did not invoke the goat spirit music, dunno what the AI's are conjuring beneath our noses ...
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I think this is version 1 of the giraffe, which was 27 feet tall. We had to cut it down to 23 ft for v2 because it was kind of dangerously unwieldy. Looked great, though. Could lean down to have its snoot booped by kiddoes, graze in the trees, dance to samba music.
A life-sized giraffe puppet is marched down a city street. It is made of bamboo and painted burlap. There are many puppeteers. Trees, buildings and traffic lights are present, getting the point that this puppet is really really tall.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Weather forecast for Nahcotta, Washington, a small town on the Pacific Ocean. Temperatures for the next week (in Farenheit) range from lows of 55 to highs of 61. There will be some rain.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
The #Chehalis Tribe have improved I-5 considerably with this one simple update.
The old Helsing Farms Uncle Sam billboard, formerly owned by a hateful old John Birch League guy, was sold back to the Chehalis Tribe by his heirs. Dunno the details. For decades it displayed hateful weird slogans. It's much improved now. Ot says "NATIVE AMERICA" next to an angry Uncle Sam face.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Big day for #OFMD on AO3! We've got more than 40,000 fics! "StedeHammer 40K," anyone?
AO3  screenshot reading "1 to 20 of 40,003 works in Our Flag Means Death (TV). There are 2001 pages to click through on the panel below it
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
My morning thus far...
Screen shot of a Duck Duck Go search result. The query was "why is my youtube not working." The result shows thumbnail links to several youtube videos explaining how to fix problems with, yes, youtube videos.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
This is from ILWU 23 (Tacoma)'s facebook page. And here's a link to their statement: www.ilwu.org/ilwu-stateme...
A giant container ship from the Evergreen line. Shipping containers on the deck are stacked so the word RENEE is spelled out in red containers on a background of green containers. Each container would be the trailer part of a tractor-trailer, they're huge. The text below it reads "ILWU Local 23. Seven hours ago. Solidarity from Tacoma to Minneapolis! Justice for Renee Good and Alex Pretti. RIP. AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL."
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
Here's the exteriors.
Four prototype black Christmas cracker shells, assembled but unfilled. There are silver designs embossed on them. Two are Grateful Dead "stealie" skulls, the others are kestrel wing feathers.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
Difficulty opening the white chocolate chips. Oh well, at least I probably don't need stitches.
A very pink left hand with bandaids on the thumb and middle finger. Candy making supplies are in the background.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
A black piece of paper with diamonds cut out all over it, and a silver Grateful Dead skill logo wmbossed on it with mica dust. It will soon become the outer edge of a Chrostmas cracker.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
And here's the step-by-step:
If you receive a scam comment from a guest, you can press the "Spam" button on the comment. This helps train our automated spam-checker to better detect this type of behavior.

If you encounter a scammer that has a registered account, or if you encounter a guest posting scam comments on someone else's work, please report them to the Policy & Abuse committee. To do so:

1. Select the "Thread" button on the scammer's comment. This will take you to the specific comment page.

2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Policy Questions & Abuse Reports.

3. In the "Brief summary of Terms of Service violation" field, enter "Spambot".
    
4. In the "Description of the content you are reporting" field, enter "This is a spambot, their username is USERNAME."

Reporting in this fashion helps us auto-sort your report so that it can be handled as soon as a Policy & Abuse volunteer is available. To help us address reports about these types of bots as fast as possible, please only submit one report per account, and don't include multiple accounts in the same report.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
And when I say the shop is great & important, check out their post for their summer feed-the-community initiative. They've been a USDA lunch location in the past. When that was eliminated they did it anyway.
A Facebook screenshot.

Gabi's Olympic Cards & Comics
July 2, 2025

As summer is going, please remember we have food bags for everyone that needs them.  Many kids don't have access to school lunches, so we have you covered. We also do weekly food boxes.There is a green box when you walk in the door that always have sack lunches in them. Feel free to grab one.  We also keep water bottles by the door for you to grab. There is never a reason for anyone in our community to go hungry. There is no judgement or stigma. In Hawaiian, we call it a Kuleana which translates to, basically,  "A responsiblity one is honored to have."  
Love and light,
Gab
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
SNAP benefits have been sent out in Washington State. Let your neighbors know, because not everybody is online. See alt text for more details. FB link is to official post is here: www.facebook.com/share/p/17mE...
DSHS SNAP Program's official logo, with the caption "November SNAP Benefits have been sent out in Washington. See caption for more details." The caption: "Full November food assistance benefits are being released to people in Washington state.

If you are eligible for SNAP or the Food Assistance Program for November, you should see funds loaded on your card on the day it usually arrives. If you typically get your benefits on the first through the seventh of the month, you should already have benefits available – and you can use them as soon as they are loaded onto your card. This is based on the current court order. The federal government has filed an appeal, which is pending.

To confirm if your benefits have arrived, check the ebtEDGE or MyWABenefits apps or call the phone number on the back of your card.

We are processing new applications for food benefits that were submitted after Oct. 16, 2025, as quickly as possible.

We are relieved we can issue full November food assistance benefits for people in Washington state even though the federal government shutdown continues.

While we cannot predict what may happen in December, we will share information as soon as it is available on our website: https://www.dshs.wa.gov/alert/partial-federal-government-shutdown
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
There was a surprise update 2 weeks ago! Thanks be to Wikipedia forbsolving the mysterym
A Wikipedia quote: "Originally set at level 40, the maximum level a player can reach was increased to level 50 on November 30, 2020, and then raised again to Level 80 on October 15, 2025."
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
I can't estimate crowds but the #nokings rally in Olympia was big. High spirits, colorful costumes and community activist booths were everywhere. Whoever organized the car parade did a spectacular job. The horns never stopped honking.
A large, dense and colorful crowd is assembled on the steps and lawn of the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Banker's helicopter flying low & fast out of Astoria, no callsign, wonder who they're buying at this early hour.
Flight report screenshot showing takeoff of an Agusta helicopter owned by US Bank Equipment Finance Division. It's taking off from the tiny airport at Astoria, Oregon. It's not showing a callsign, which is weird.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Thank you watchduty.org
A map of Lake Cushman, Washington and the Schneider Fire. The fire was started when a military helicopter crashed about 9pm local time on 17 Sept 2025. The map doesn't convey how steep the terrain is.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Looks like the website may have changes in progress right now (early morning PDT). The lower pages still call the Guests of Honor "Pioneers" and the venue the "Frontier," but the main page drops that. The main page theme is now "Dare to Discover, Dare to Explore, Dare to be Uncharted!."
Screen shot from menu on LACon 5's "about" page, where guests are called pioneers and the venue is called the frontier. These labels have been removed from the site's main page.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Not my cat, but this happened at our house a few times.
Joy Division
Unknown Pleasures

A grey-and-white kitten has attempted to climb some grey Venetian blinds. The collapsed blinds look like the graph of radio emissions from a neutron star used as the cover of Joy Division's first album, Unknown Pleasures. The kitten is tangled at the bottom, the expression on its face absolutely radiating "I MEANT to do that" energy.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Hey from SE Wyoming. We've got a very rare day off and it's a beautiful sunny morning.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Once we got over White Pass and officially to the deserts of Eastern Washington, it started raining. Not how this story normally goes.
Ponderosa pines atop a twisted cliff, just past the crest of White Pass, Washington.A small mesa in eastern Washington.  It is raining but there is a sunbeam shining on the mesa.An intricate metalwork sun across from me on the wall of a Mexican restaurant.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Taking a pic to remember what water looks like. Riffe Lake.
A very green mountain meadow above a lake. Evergreen trees are in the foreground, dark mountains and dramatic clouds in the back.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
I have found the tackiest fabric of all time. It's four-way stretch spandex, like you make the good sports leggings out of. I won't *really* buy it, but if I did, what should I make and where should I wear it?
A swatch of printed spandex fabric from an online retailer. It is called Doge Coin. The design is the DogeCoin shiba inu dog on gold coins, over and over again, on a background speckled with tiny blue rocketships, the planet Saturn and an ornate letter D. It is $15 per yard. It is heavy-weight four-way stretch spandex, suitable for making sturdy athleisure garments.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
And here he is this week, keeping my chair warm while I get a cup of tea.
A sleek brown-and-white tabby cat snoozing on a chair. He is in nearly a perfect circle. It's the same cat as the tiny baby kitten in the previous picture.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
The lil guy in this picture turns 14 next week. Here he is on the day his eyes first opened.
A tiny brown-and-white tabby kitten on a beige blanket. This is the day his eyes opened and he is gazing at the world with huge amazed dark eyes.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Somebody read the Book of Revelations and thought it was a how-to manual.
And that no man might buy or sell, save that he had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:17)
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
But not THOSE Avengers, THESE Avengers:
John Steed and Emma Peel from the 1967 television show The Avengers, in a back-to-back pose that is suspiciously similar to the one Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet are making in the referenced photo.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
One last Misty, possibly the most practical of the set.
The name Misty, written in bold black ink, still with swirly fancy letters but in a more legible way than these others have been.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
The calligrapher says: "Flourishes are like garlic: you keep on adding them to the dish until you run out or can't fit any more in..."
The name Misty, with many decorative swoops, diamonds and echoey lines. If a religious book ever begins, "In the beginning, Misty...", this will be the proper illumination of the holy name. Otherwise, it's a bit much.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
"Ornamented to a fault," our handwriting guy says.
The name Misty in silver-grey metallic ink, but the letters are ornamented in a geometric way that makes it look more like a German wrought-iron fence than a set of legible letters.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
If Misty ever signs a new country's constitution:
The name Misty in black ink, in a dramatically ornamented copperplate font like you'd see in Ye Olde Fancy Legal Documents.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
The opposite of Warhammer 40K, a rounded bouncy version
The name Misty written in dark grey ink, in a very rounded but fancy script
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Some kind of Warhammer 40K version
The name Misty written in a chiseled-looking font in silver ink like the tech priests in Warhammer 40K might use
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Colorful version
The name Misty, in orange-and-red gradient ink, in a fancy script.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
But to be fair, I hope to spend six weeks in a tent this summer and won't be able to take a lot of paper books.
An AO3 "Marked For Later" tab list showing that I have 52 tabs' worth of fics marked to be read later. There are 20 fics per tab, which translates to 1,040 stories in my queue.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
Thought for dealing with difficult people, from my sister the nurse:
I've been told I can catch more flies with honey; but I can catch plenty of flies with your dead carcass, so this could go either way...
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
So sorry! There should be an annual award or a Hall of Fame for this. Hold it at WorldCon. A bad-costume party afterward. The first emcee for the ceremony could be Bruce Sterling. The mind-bogglingly inappropriate late-80's US paperback cover for "Islands in the Net" cost him a lot of readers.
Original US paperback cover of Bruce Sterling's "Islands In The Net." It is a portrait of a pouting white woman in black leather fetish armor, unzipped to approximately nipple-level to show maximum cleavage of her ample pillowy bosoms. She is breasting boobily, with arms crossed under her tatas for maximal mammary projection. Her long black hair is dramatically wavy and includes wire-rapped dreadlocks along its front edges.

The woman in the cover does not appear in the book. So far, no one like her appears in any Bruce Sterling book. The actual protagonist of "Islands in the Net" is a recently post-partum mixed race woman who likes her desk job. She is a reluctant hero at best, and would not tolerate the chafing that this cover's bare-leather-on-skin outfit would require.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Switching mental playlist to Toto's "I'll Supply The Love" for p21 because apparently it's as dumb as this paragraph.
Text messages obtained by the Committee show that Representative Gaetz would also ask women to bring drugs to their rendezvous, in some instances requesting marijuana cartridges and repaying the women directly, but in other cases requesting “a full compliment [sic] of party favors,” “vitamins,” or “rolls.” Representative Gaetz sent one woman several hundred dollars for marijuana cartridges.  One woman stated that, with respect to a 2018 Bahamas trip, “[M]yself and [Representative Gaetz's then-girlfriend] brought drugs with us, and I do know that Matt supplied [his then-girlfriend] with money." Another woman said that she brought cocaine to at least one event with Representative Gaetz and that she witnessed him taking cocaine or ecstasy on at least five occasions. Mr. Greenberg told the Committee that he would typically provide drugs, such as ecstasy, for events he attended and Representative Gaetz would pay him back in cash. Several other women observed Representative Gaetz to be under the influence of drugs. Additionally, nearly every witness interviewed observed Representative Gaetz using marijuana.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
I'm not saying this is the OPTIMAL song, but good lord the table on page 19 is what brought it to mind.
A table summarizing payments made by Representative Gaetz to Mr. Joel Greenberg and to women via peer-to-peer payment platforms or checks. It has three columns: Recipient, dollar amount and timeframe.

The recipients are labeled "Woman 1" through "Woman 12" plus Joel Greenberg. Dollar amounts range from $200 to $63,836.58, and the timeframe is 2017 to 2020. 

Woman 1, who received nearly $64,000, is labeled as "(former girlfriend)".
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
I know where this is parked, and I have lockpicks.
A tall sailing ship named the Lady Washington is sailing near shore in Puget Sound on a beautiful blue-sky day. Above the waterline she is painted black with red and gold trim. Her sails are white. Below the waterline her hull is white. She is a brig (two masts) built in 1989 as a replica of an American ship that used to harrass the British Navy. In the photo, she flies the flags of the United States and the State of Washington. She often flies Pride Flags and Blackbeard's flag. She has appeared in many films. Some of her crew can recite entire episodes of Our Flag Means Death.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Just scrawl up something like this and everybody'll think you had an even wilder weekend than you actually did.
Black t-shirt with a white silkscreened tabby-cat face. Cursive writing above it reads "riot grrl".
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Live your life so that, when you die, r/nursing doesn't roast your still-warm corpse so eloquently.
A screenshot from Reddit

r/SubredditDrama
loimprevisto

United Healthcare CEO killed in targeted shooting, r/nursing reacts

Fresh popcorn, hot and buttery!

The threads have a lot of moral recriminations and snark, and even a few recipes for tuna salad. Some highlights:

(List below is all links to portions of the conversation)

"Code Blue" thread restricted to flaired users only - "United Healthcare CEO attacked"

Open thread - United Healthcare CEO killed in targeted shooting

This fatal shooting has been reviewed by a peer and is considered a non-covered experimental procedure.

Mountain Fig 9253 provides a coverage review (and appeal determination) for the claim

Tuna salad discussion

Yes these people are overpaid but celebrating a murder and calling for more is gross (-77 points)

Bullet in chest (ICD-10 S21.301A: unspecified open wound of thorax with penetration into thoracic cavity) sounds like a pre-existing condition. Sorry, no coverage. Maybe try physical therapy.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
We came, we saw, we ate the quince jam. Thank you, Bonne Maman.
A Bonne Maman advent calendar box is opened to reveal a cheerful Christmas village picture. It is sitting on a butcher block. In front of it is a pair of crossed jam-knives, still sticky with red quince jam. A tiny red-checked jam jar lid sits above where the knives cross, like a coat-of-arms. (The jar is missing.) It's all labeled by an index card reading "It's December!" in fancy blue writing. A big white cat has wandered into the frame at lower left.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Potato tart is out. It does not look fancy.
Just-out-of oven potato tart cools on the counter. It is brown, rectangular and not fancy-looking. Smells nice though.
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Drat. Crisis on two earths... I mean, in two kitchens ten miles apart:
Me: OH NO I ALSO LEFT THE GREEN BEANS AT YOUR PLACE
10 minutes ago

Son: wait

I will try to find it
10 minutes ago

Me: If you find them, your dad will come fetch the bag

Otherwise taking carrots.
6 minutes ago

Son: yep found them

if you send him over with a couple inches of ginger, I'd be grateful

the ginger I got yesterday was *hollow* and filled with *horrors*
5 minutes ago

Me: We do not have fresh ginger
2 minutes ago

Son: damnit okay
2 minutes ago

Me: Candied AND powdered but not fresh
2 minutes ago


Son: So. It's now a dessert vindaloo
2 minutes ago

Me: Num num woo
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Crosstown cross-generational family group chat. Not gonna be hungry after this dinner.
A Signal chat.

Yesterday:
Son: Hey you left your knives aaa! 4:15pm
Parent: I knowwwww. 4:42 PM
Son: I'm sorry :( 4:42 PM
Parent: Don't need them urgently, thank goodness. 4:42 PM

Today

Parent: How goes the kitchen at your place? 10m
Son: pretty good 
got most of the prep done, so now it's just juggling time on the oven and waiting to heat up the vindaloo
got the tiramisu done last night
9m

Parent: Good! It's like the United Nations menu.

I'm doing a potato-shallot gallette at the moment. Getting enough caffeine onboard to do the filling now.

Then roasted green beans, mac + chz, probably carrots.

That sheet pan is seeing much action today.

Dreaming of Daniel's turkey, mmm.
8m
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Mostly Harmless @toadlily.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Two desserts. She's considering washing the whole kitchen and making a carrot cake w/no nuts before she goes to bed, to ensure there's a cousin-safe confection.
Exquisite orange cheesecake with feathery white swirl marbling in it, cooling in its pan on a counter.A thoroughly glazed rum bundt cake sits on a counter. There is a bottle of Kraken spiced rum behind it. The bottle's not as full as it used to be. Uncle Rene' will be pleased.
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