Month: January 2025 (Page 1 of 5)

–Took the BMW on a run to Hooverville Orchards. Jams are $10 now. Got some anyway.

–Finally found a satisfactory cookie consent/policy plugin for my WordPress sites. I must have tried 10 of them.

–Cleaned up the Erie Spider cast iron skillet.

–Won yet another fidget lottery–the third in a few weeks, after years of failure in knife lotteries. The Ns are lower with spinners, but still…

–Took the BMW to Roseville BMW for first service. Smooth, quick.

–A couple of spinners came in. Nothing exciting.

–Watered the Bird of Paradise again, as it was looking a little droopy.

–Pizza Guys pepperoni pizza for dinner. Good, but kind of a hassle.

–Called Vanguard and a rep talked me through sending $56k+ from Ally to Vanguard as a rollover. I sure hope everything was correct–the right account, labeled as indirect rollover, etc.

–Picked up the Sea-Dweller at Ivanov’s. Seems to be working okay, though amplitude is low at ~214. Won’t really know until I wind it after it has run down.

–Got an appointment at 11 AM tomorrow at Niello BMW in Roseville for the initial oil service. It’s an “express” service and should take less than an hour.

–Called Vanguard about the double RMD withdrawal. They said if I return one of them within 60 days, it will be viewed as an “indirect rollover,” and will have no financial consequences. I’ll call again tomorrow to set it up.

–Got a dozen sesame bagels at New York Bagel.

–Played with the Zeiss 50mm/f1.4 lens. I did manage to clean and reinstall the aperture blades, but then kept fussing and ruined everything. Found a much newer one on eBay and bought it (biggest serial I’ve seen until now started with 9; this one starts with 15).

–Bought $1,850 worth of spinners: Unquiet Hands Atrium Superconductor and a Random Fabrications something.

–Silver squirrel came by for peanuts.

–Learned last night that I took my RMD from Vanguard twice: once by check, again by transfer to Ally when I didn’t think the first one had  gone through. Crap. Not at all clear that Vanguard will be able to undo one, as taxes have been withheld.

–Red Baron for dinner, with added mushrooms and bell peppers.

–Bizarre and disappointing: I compared the Zeiss/Contax 50/1.4 to the 1.7 on night shots. The 1.7 is fine, as I knew, but the 1.4, while admirably sharp and all, really distorts the shapes of the globe lights. N of 2, so it’s not a fluke, and it distorted at least two of the lights, while the globes taken with the 1.7 were perfect. Crap.

–Went to the Sunrise farmers market for tangerines.

–Picked up the Rotablade fidget spinner at UPS. What a mess. Somebody used an ounce of Loctite on it, so I needed two pliers to get it open. Had lots of trouble swapping bearings, and actually bent the body in the process. Tossed.

–Made pepperoni/mushroom pizza for dinner.

–Took the Sea Dweller to Ivanov’s Watch Repair to see if they could get it to start up reliably.

–Stopped at Corti Brothers for pizza, Basque Cake, Humboldt Fog cheese, lingonberry jam.

–Polished copper LIC EDC Edamame spinner came in. Pretty nice. Also a knife from Monterey Bay Knives–huge, crude, useless: it has a tab for front flipping, but I can’t flip it. Oh well…

–Walked to UPS to pick up the Contax/Zeiss 50mm f1.4 lens. It did not disappoint. Came with everything, including the coveted “PASSED” sticker. Takes a good picture too.

–Played with dizzinessandnausea.com. Found a site with free photos, so redid all of them.

–Took a shower and shave.

–Went to FedEx on Sun Center to pick up the Rolex 1680. Today was the last day before they shipped it back to Rolliworks, apparently. Would have been nice if someone had mentioned the shipment to me. Watch runs well, though fast. Of all my Subs, I’d still prefer to keep the Sea-Dweller, but it continues to not start ticking until I open it up and jiggle the balance wheel. Off to Ivanov’s, I guess. Certainly not Rolliworks.

–Played around a lot with different cookie consent plugins at dizzinessandnausea.com. Settled for the moment on Complianz, which I had resisted because of the name. Seems pretty straightforward. Still haven’t heard back from Google on my re-submission of Dizziness for Adsense approval.

–Spent a while fixing up dizzinessnadnausea.com so Google might accept it. The hoops you have to jump through to comply with world-wide regulations on privacy, tracking, cookies etc. are many.

–Walked to UPS to pick up some fidget spinners. Got some nice ones.