Day 285: Break Day

Today was to be the break after Susie’s Mohs surgery yesterday. I woke about 5ish and thought I can sleep in a bit. I have a meeting that I have to do at nine that needs me, but I can sleep to 730ish.

Susie was ill. At 6ish she needed help and I had to help her walk and do some caregiving things. It was a difficult start. I also got Susie some Tylenol and ice packs for her face and back. So no sleeping-in today.

Susie rested until late morning. I managed my morning meetings and getting Susie breakfast and me my lunch. It was a bit chaotic, but all was well by 1ish.

I put on the animated movie Snow White, the original, on Disney+ for Susie. I fell asleep in the chair. Susie thought it funny to look over at her caregiver asleep in the chair. I just closed my eyes and before I know it Snow White is saved by Prince Charming!

Once I got going again, I headed out to Wholefoods. I wanted some snacks for Christmas Eve and I forgot milk and eggs last time (I remembered this time). I picked up some beers for the holiday: Duvel and Pilsner Urquell. I brought a case of Duvel back from Belgium years ago; it is a fav. I also was told years ago that the official glass for Urquell was often stolen and so you have to give a shoe to the bartender in some bars in Europe to order it. This prevents you from leaving with the expensive glass. I suspect it is a story told to Americans–but I always think about the story when I have a Urquell.

Wholefoods had 50% off of the price of Oregon Blue Cheese from the Rogue Creamery. In 2019 the world said that these folks made the best cheese in the world. We will celebrate Christmas Eve with a bit of their best. I bought the gouda imported from Holland. This is to remember Amsterdam. We spent last Christmas there. Then some locally made sausages and we are ready for the holiday evening!

I spent the afternoon doing laundry, dishes, making a small dinner (Chicken Cordon Blu from frozen with canned excellent peaches), and then getting out more cookies, chocolates, and all the other stuff. Susie’s mom, Leta, sent a box of cookies that Susie is into. I have Dondrea’s Christmas collection of goodies to consume.

Susie is back to her normal self this evening.

Moving to the next challenge, I also tried a no-knead recipe for bread from King Arthur Flour Company. I put in a tiny bit extra salt by accident, but I think that will not harm it. I have seen a lot of press on the no-knead bread. I thought it would be good to try it tonight. I will be up at 6ish to do the next steps.

I also started reworking my python chess program today. The original version was just more of a demo program than a usable game. Now I want to have it play a not-stupid game. That will require a bit of restructuring. I also want to use a genetic algorithm to help me find the best weighting factors. I need to save all the values for each move to have something to feed to a genetic process.

For this challenge, I need a few more hours of coding to get it cleaned-up and beyond a demo. I truly enjoy coding AI in Python. I always wanted to do genetic programming too. Maybe not your idea of fun, but for me, it is wonderful to play in AI.

Laundry stopped as, as usual, I ran out of laundry products on the same day I went shopping! I need some Bounce Sheets and the detergent is running low. I will try to slip-out between meetings. I checked my schedule and every last meeting has canceled for tomorrow. Hmmm.

3,401 deaths are reported from Covid-19 in the USA today. One of the worst days on record.

I found this really fun version of There’s a Song in the Air. I hope you like it.