I did not sleep well last night but got up for the usual pup walk and trip to the gym. We had an invasion of tiny ants that I had to deal with first thing this morning and that definitely did not make me happy. In better news, after months of submitting applications and interview after interview, D has been offered a new career opportunity. I am really happy for her.
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Drove back from Canada yesterday afternoon – got in for a late dinner. A number of things were not working (3 weeks away).
We had to fix a Sleep Number sofa – a friend gave it to us because she could not believe that we were sleeping on a Queen mattress and somehow felt we couldn’t survive except on a King. It was from a house they had sold. Well the pump had died after a few years and we got a new one on warranty. But, we did not have instructions on how to reconnect it. After ShawWife tried to do it intuitively for about 20 minutes with no luck, I took pictures of the model and the remote and asked Gemini to guide us through it. In 10 minutes, we had it connected and filled and ready for bed.
The Toto washlet toilet (one of the great luxuries in life) did not seem to be working. I think there was one or more power outages while we were gone. It was unclear how to get it to work. Went to Gemini who told me how to do a reset and we were up and running.
Then, two of the mini-splits didn’t seem to be working. Gemini gave me a troubleshooting guide and in 10 minutes, I got them working.
In our house, ShawWife is normally the one who handles mechanical things that aren’t working. But now, with AI, I can solve the problems a lot faster and in this case without external help.
This morning, went to Costco to restock and then had a difficult meeting where we had to ease a a partner out of a nascent venture because he is a) too distracted; and b) does not show signs of being able to do what we thought he would do to make his participation worthwhile. Then had a call with someone who wants to get me and business partner involved in helping to guide the solution to a major upcoming political problem in another country.
From toilets to international political problem-solving.
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Boring day mostly but eyes to the skies tonight with first, yet another Vandenberg launch viewed from the back deck and second, moon rise over San Diego Bay from Bali Hai.
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Yay—carpenter finally called & came by to look at our house & take measurements so he can fix our screens and build us a wooden window similar to the other wooden windows we have for the house. H also found the 1/2 rounds he has for the window screens, so that will be invaluable as material for the replacement screens.
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DH is holding our community’s annual road association meeting this morning online instead of in-person this year, so I was spared the work of hosting. Going out to dinner with friends this evening.
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Today is a relaxing day. We had a great happy hour last night with plentiful finger foods…that was dinner. Our guests were able to see all their former neighbors, which was lots of fun.
Today, laundry. Then later today, a little concert at our beach club. Nothing fancy. I’ll go down for a little while, but DH is doing a 55 mile charity bike ride tomorrow morning so I doubt he will come.
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I truly like Gemini. My son got me started on it. I’ve only used it for mechanical things and learning how to upload pictures.
Yesterday I took a CE course on AI and ethics in mental health; I had no idea how my colleagues were utilizing AI in their work. Gemini was one of the platforms being used, as well as scripts and Bridge. I’m just too old to learn. It’s enough I’m using a computer program for notes.
Was this post sponsored by Gemini? lol
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Just sitting down to breakfast brunch now at 11am, it’s been a busy morning! Exercise for me and then for pup, cleaned some fruit and made some sourdough waffles (which I’m eating now with the fruit), made some pickled jalapeños, did the pool maintenance, picked some flowers from the yard for inside and chatted with my neighbor for a bit - she had a tree fall this week and crash into her stairs down to the water 
so she was filling me in on developments with that. And she gave me a baby oblong organic watermelon she bought for us at the farmer’s market this morning!
Besides doing some rain dances for tonight (we NEED rain and it keeps missing us!), I’ll take a swim and I’m going to try to make some chocolate chip cottage cheese protein bites later (no-bake). I also might pack some stuff up and go sit at the library and get some personal computer work done - I love getting a fun drink and hanging out at the library in a cozy spot.
I bought a rib eye yesterday - I’d like to grill that tonight but it’s quite thick. H likes he meat WELL WELL done. Do you think I can cut this rib eye width wise so it’s two thin steaks instead of one thick steak? I’m no steak preparing expert. I’ll be grilling.
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Wrapped up yesterday by finally watching Devil Wears Prada 2 - fun movie but a lot of resemblance (I thought) to real life events. I have to say I preferred the original.
This morning had a nice walk with Sabapup, then coffee, then Mr. Sabaray and I took her to the P-A-R-K. We had a lengthy walk on the trails and she was thrilled. We hadn’t been there in quite a while, over a year. Then I tried to interest Mr. Sabaray in some real estate listings - that went over like a lead balloon.
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I cut my thick steaks in half.
What I do sometimes is cut the steak in half, grill each side and then cut the steak that needs to be more done in half. Cook it a few minutes more.
That way I can have steaks cook 2 different ways.
I just hold the piece of steak with my tongs and cut in half lengthwise. It’s easier to do when it’s a smaller size. I’m guessing it has bones? I will trim the steak of the bones or usually just cut a portion off.
Hope this makes sense.
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Raining this morning. Have plans for golf this afternoon so I’m hoping it stops in time.
Golf out to dinner with friends.
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Makes sense! Thank you I’ll give it a try! I’m used to making meat on the grill 2 ways - mine just a little rare and H’s hockey pucks. 
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Yes. Actually, I have been using Claude, ChatGPT, and Perplexity as well, but am finding Gemini very easy to work with for lots of tasks. Claude does more nuanced writing much better. Gemini has access to the entire internet (it is Google) so is very good for deep research.
I understand the enthusiasm for various AI tools, but I wonder if we could take the discussion over the relative merits of each over to one of the dedicated AI threads. I believe there are several.
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Unbelievably, I woke up to a 99 sleep score on my Apple watch. That’s a 98 and a 99 this week. What is happening?
Got up and had breakfast while scrolling and listening to podcasts. Dh and I did our monthly budget reconciliation and answered life’s big questions. Then we tackled life’s smaller question — how do we want to advise landscaper coming tomorrow to give us ideas for the front yard? I think it’s interesting how dh and I have definite likes and dislikes, which makes it much easier than doing work inside the house. We drove around a bit, and I took some pics of yards we like in the neighborhood for inspo and will email those to him in a bit. I still haven’t had lunch or worked out so I feel behind on my day even though I’ve accomplished a lot. Happy to have WNBA games to keep me company when I finally get on the treadmill.
Dh works tonight so no telling what kind of mischief I will find in his absence.
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I slept late with weird dreams after taking a small dose of melatonin early this morning. I met my friend across the street where we talked on a park bench. I listened to her complain about her very disagreeable roommate (both in their 70s) sister. I can sympathize and empathize and have my own ideas about how she may avoid some of the tsuris (Yiddish for distress, mas o menos) but not my monkey not my circus and I appreciate that she listens to my tsuris.
At 4pm, grupo español inglés where we will discuss a visit to Cartagena, Colombia with homestays, maybe in the fall. So far it’s a beautiful day and hopefully we will be able to sit outside on the sidewalk where the bar where we meet has umbrella tables and chairs.
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I was exhausted last night – too much to recount of my day, but I slept in this morning an hour and a half longer than usual.
Then to breakfast with my once-monthly lady friends. I’m having 13 people for brunch tomorrow, so today I: Washed all the outdoor furniture, brought up the card table and chairs from the basement, set up the outdoor umbrella, put the cushions on the furniture in the seating area, got out the tablecloths and napkins, started to cut up a watermelon that unfortunately we bought a good month ago, chucked that watermelon, ran to Grocery #1 to get another then when they didn’t have any! I ran to Grocery #2. Cut up pineapple, grapes, strawberries, new watermelon, honeydew, and threw in two cans of mandarin oranges. I’ll add peaches and mangos in the morning. Then I laid out my bacon on aluminum foil so I can bake it in the oven. Tomorrow I’ll pull together the croissant French toast, bake the bacon, make the coffee, and set the table.
It’s a lot of work but I really enjoy entertaining. These people are from the dog park, so I don’t need to apologize when our dog goes crazy when they arrive.
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First outdoor cycle since returning home. then coffee/lunch with ShawWife’s friend and husband (who is my lawyer). The friend and I helped ShawWife pick out a dress for ShawD’s wedding next month. Then we did full self-driving to and from the wedding of the son of some old friends. The dad never travels from the PNW so we haven’t seen him in 10 or so years. It was great to see them. ShawWife is a bit of a mentor to his son and new wife as she is leaving her teaching job to become and artist. Did talk AI with my friend as he has an AI company.
Tomorrow, probably another ride and then an old grad school roommate and his partner will join us for dinner. Wonderful, deep human being but he was a chef at a SF restaurant before starting grad school and cooking for him is daunting.
Got another great night of sleep but woke up a little dizzy. I think I jumped out of bed too quickly. I got dh to take my BP, which was a little high for me, but whatever. We had our usual almond-flour blueberry pancakes and then met with the landscaper. We loved him, and I can’t believe how inexpensive he will work. I think he loved us, too. We aren’t fussy about what we want and told him to give us three price points and we’ll see which we prefer. I love that he is going to come back and just walk the space and sit with it a moment. We were kindred spirits.
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