Six, Waiting for Godot, Hadestown, Paranormal Activity, Maybe Happy Ending, Masquerade... this is getting to be a habit.

Always take advantage of Broadway Week. Don't listen to the naysayers who say they can't find the half-price tickets. Pay attention to the specific dates, performances and seats that are part of the promotion for each show.

Don't sit behind columns. Do sit in the front row of the mezzanine. Absolutely sit in the front row of the orchestra, which is occasionally cheaper due to a peripheral-but-amazing view. Often the rows are well-pitched to ensure a view for shorter patrons, but not always. Use A View From My Seat to avoid disappointment and spot surprisingly good options.

Eat reasonably and well at the Columbus Circle Underground Market if you don't have the time to walk further from the Times Square Neon Zone.

Save a ton with a matinee day trip. Amtrak is not as cheap as you'd hope. FlixBus and friends aren't bad, but by the time you make the connection and wait in traffic, your matinee day trip is ballooning to twelve hours, soooo consider just driving yourself.

Driving into Manhattan? Yes! There is no congestion fee on weekends, they want you to come! Always use SpotHero to reserve (yes, this is a thing) a parking garage within a few blocks of the theater well in advance. Navigate with Waze, and pay attention when it offers you routes that add 5 minutes and save $15 in tolls. You'll pay tolls no matter what, but it's still a lot cheaper than Amtrak for two.

It's been a marvelous year for jalapenos. Our tiny garden beside the driveway has been bursting with them.

I've made two batches of sriracha so far. For those I used riper, redder jalapenos, but R. informed me it was time for the space to be given over to fall-friendly plantings. So it looks like'll be... making six bottles of green sriracha? What else does one do with so many jalapenos?

You gotta go out if you wanna git up with the get-down.

Pop songs with a kizomba beat have completed their life cycle and reached easy listening stations.

Where did the blazing ball of radioactive fire go

Why is my third floor habitable

What do you mean we don't need to water the garden

What is this damp substance on the ground

I am confused

We're back. Not sure what happened there, the out of memory zapper zapped mongod last night. I took the opportunity to do a package update as well. Thanks Rob for pointing it out.

It's an honor to be here at the Snooze Olympics! Our next competitor is Spike from Germantown 

He's being watched closely this year ever since his breakthrough display of indolence at the Commonwealth Games

Oh this is excellent form. The entire tail off the chair. The one leg sticking out to the moon. The one leg seemingly disappearing into another dimension. And.... Yes.... The one paw entirely covering the face! 

The scores are coming in... 9.8... 9.9... And a 7.5. Yes something really has to be done about these dog judges

Every time I install these I think I should do this. Finally got around to it thanks to Instagram filters.

Hardly the technological revolution of our time. But today I realized I was seated really far from the order status board at Starbucks. My eyes are quite good with glasses (1), but not that good. So I took a pic of it with my very midrange Pixel 8a, zoomed in, and read my name.

I remember posting a few years ago that I was looking forward to this, but cell phones were still inferior to the naked eye most of the time.

Of course, everybody could have carried opera glasses starting a century ago. But one's daily carry has limits.

I like to note these small milestones because I tend to miss how much has changed in our lifetimes. Despite how dystopian technology can be, I feel a bit cheated that we haven't gone from the Wright Brothers to the Moon. But some seriously crazy shit is going down, and cool little stuff too.

(1) People without glasses, particularly people who had vision surgery more than ten years ago, are often surprised that I can see stuff they can't. Look, I definitely remember my own "oh I don't need glasses" phase. But cheap glasses are nowhere near as dorky as they were THIRTY YEARS AGO 👻. Just grab an eye exam, under insurance if you're lucky. Make sure they write down your IPD (Intrapupillary Distance). And then just hop on Zenni. Don't be a boomer and get suckered into vision store prices.

Also there's contacts if you're vain. I get it. I'm totally vain.