We had a wonderful family visit, the sisters got along well, Janet seemed very sharp and alert.
She shared she was unaware of Pam being a prankster. I explained Pam never took victory laps nor teased her prank victims, she played innocent. Janet smiled at that. We had a good talk, and she is looking forward to hanging with Katie Thursday through Sunday as they quilt up a storm.
One complaint this year: our nephew asked Katie why no spinach roll-ups this year; those are his favorites! Katie was pleased with the complaint and offered to bring some next time.
Our next family gathering will be at my oldest son's house the last Sunday in May. Not Memorial weekend Sunday, however.
Browser ads have served me up some Peanuts gifts. I saw a potential wedding ring, but the Peanuts characters were in a fabric material, and I thought it was not last well over time. My "Athena Owl Ring" wedding band is looking worse for wear. Tbf, I only paid $8 for it. But the ads offered a Kohl's necklace with Snoopy and Woodstock, so I bought it for Katie. She wore it today. She likes it. Being from Kohl's, the original price was probably $13.647 million, but after discounts, preferred shopper, and Kohl's cash I think it cost me $24 (tax included). Although I think the original price might have been inflated a bit.
Sigrid makes spinach balls, which are popular with our dinner guests. I wonder if they are similar to Katie's. Hers are basically breaded spinach, baked. I like them although otherwise I don't eat spinach.
Katie mixes spinach with something creamy, then rolls it into a green tortilla: she then cuts the tortillas into bitesize morsels. They taste pretty good, plus I get credit for eating vegetables.
Good morning. Happy Easter! Jesus is risen, alleluia!
The mothership's faith article for today (covering the bases between Passover, Easter and Orthodox Palm Sunday) has an article suggesting that we should show the "Christmas and Easter" Christians who show up this weekend, mercy and welcoming. I tend to agree, and I pray for them that they will take their faith more seriously. (I suspect there are "Passover Jews" to which that applies as well).
Temps are in the 40s where it will stay all day. The rain that came last night brought cooler temperatures.
Happy Easter! May the day bring meaning and joy to all who celebrate!
And just for safety's sake, a word of caution...
As you go about preparing your table fare for today, please remember there are a couple of dozen or so instances every year of folks setting their houses on fire trying to deep-fry Easter Bunnies for their holiday dinner.
BTW... have noticed much talk of deviled eggs, to which I'll add this:
Some Easters back, upon biting into a deviled egg for the first time, one of my young grandsons - who much liked regular hardboiled eggs - almost instantaneously spit out the bite into his hand, causing his mother to nearly have a stroke.
Her horror was at least a bit tempered, and cardiovascular catastrophe averted, when he asked if my wife had made any eggs "without the devil in them" and if so, could he please have one of those?
I’ve been impressed with Google’s Gemini in coming up with pretty thorough summaries and recommendations on my prompts. But last week added some reality. I’d finished a very good novel with a complex story line and characters. At the end I wasn’t sure I fully understood what Character X’s role in a crime was. Gemini gave me an answer that made me wonder if I’d completely misunderstood the story. I wrote back “I thought Character X did this instead…” Answer: you are correct and thanks for catching this! Would you like me to dive into this further? Me: yes. We went through 5 iterations of “Yes, you’re correct and thanks!” I don’t know if Gemini didn’t have access to the full book and just took some wild guesses or what, but I now understand the “This is AI and results may not be accurate” disclaimers. It was WAY wrong in this case.
If you haven’t experienced LLM sycophancy, either you haven’t played around with one enough, or else you might be a little lacking in self-awareness…
The “hallucinations” are more akin to GIGO: garbage in, garbage out. If the data to support something are skimpy, they’ll generate more random, less relevant text based on database material that is less relevant to the issue—sometimes not at all.
Combining those two aspects gives you a fancy tool for reinforcing group-think and making it more stubborn.
I don't experience that "sycophancy" because I don't chat with AIs. I will use ChatGPT (the fre version) as an advanced Internet search tool, but that's bout it.
I wish I could remember what happened to me recently - I asked a question, & the answer I knew was incorrect so I didn't go further.
My son, from CA, is visiting & has worked in AI since he graduated from college in 2004. Last night I told him every day I opened a newsletter or email about AI, either doom & gloom, or it's going to be wonderful or a combo. He said up until around Dec, things weren't moving 'very fast', but since then it's changing quickly. His role right now is, this is a brief description, he'll draw some pics, write up a description, etc., of what the team has decided they want the programmers to design. But now, what he does could be sending such to AI???? Could those programmers be out of a job? Or find better spots? Their business isn't static, so it can be fairly easily adaptable, thus the programmers most likely aren't 'in trouble'. Nor is my son, altho AI could draw/write something to send to a programmers, etc., etc. This led to some discussion about the engineers would need to be heavily involved regarding security issues if more AI activity began happening... Anyway, this was just a beginning of a conversation... he also wants to talk to his brothers about what they see in their jobs, & what AI might be doing - one works as a forensic accountant, the other works w/ Oregon energy/as an environmental consultant. Both are well established/have been there for several yrs.
In the realm of AI incorrectness... I once asked - don't ask me why, it's a long story - AI what the plural form of "patoot" is. You may be as surprised as I was to learn that it's "potatoes".
We awoke our youngest, who slept soundly the sleep of a good boy. I took the doggos out for their business, as well as feeding them. Except I knocked over Zeus' (the blonde curly one) dog food dish, so he ate off the floor. The good news is that part of the floor doesn't need mopped for awhile!
The deviled eggs, the sugar cream pie, broccoli salad, and cookies are all ready to go! Katie transferred them to a cooler. If you ask why we always have leftovers...
Thanks for the card, Jay. I'm sort of a traditional kind of guy and don't have one with music and animated Easter eggs to send back, but maybe you'll settle for this...
there have been conversations about list-keeping. When I was a Weight Watchers leader, before the time when WW was online, & we kept journals, then when we went online, I continued to 'suggest' actual journal keeping. And it depended on personality style: 'Write then bite' or 'Bite then write'. I've always been more of a 'write then bite'; I'm a planner, plan my meals, arrange my grocery list from the meals, etc. Anyway, from discussions in mtgs, I would say things like, when you write w/ your hand a signal goes from your hand to your brain...
well, I found this:
Handwriting specifically engages a broader brain network than typing does, combining motor skills, sensory feedback, and language processing all at once. Longhand writing creates synaptic connections that typing does not, and that novel creative challenges like journaling can boost neuroplasticity even in adults.
same here, altho mine might not all be in cursive.
I'm sure all your offspring know cursive
Around the time our kids switched to private school, oldest was entering 4th grade & they no longer taught cursive. They had started teaching it in public before that, but I learned later they quit. I think I've read recently some areas of the country are once again teaching cursive???
I remember going to The Alamo, reading so many letters by those who fought, all of the letters in cursive, thinking kids won't know how to read it!!!
When my dad was young, he was skipped ahead a few grades & he told a story about one of the years he skipped was when they taught how to use the ink well & pen. So he had a real mess on his hands, trying to teach himself at the beginning of that year.
Actually, Sheldon has very tidy printing. When he was a little boy, I wondered why it took him so long to copy anything: turned out he was duplicating the type from the books. Could have had a great career as a forger.
"The good news is that death no longer has the final word over your life or my life, and we know this because one Person has risen from the dead. His resurrection means that, through him, you too can rise to new and everlasting life. To live in him and to die in him is to live and die in the sure hope of resurrection. Furthermore, we have the hope of again seeing and touching all those we loved in life and who have died."
I'm the only one awake, of course. There's a chance that DIL & missing grandson might still come in because they had Southwest tickets, which are easily transferable. Don't know if it would be today or tomorrow... 🤞
The last time I made deviled eggs - with great care so they would be perfect little boats meticulously filled with fluffy yellow stuff - my husband proceeded to unceremoniously chop them up with his fork and make a sandwich.
He's one of those folks who does the unexpected out of pragmatic cluelessness. Sometimes it's lovely, sometimes it means I no longer have to fiddle with deviled eggs.
Thinking about the various deviled egg recipes, I thought about making egg salad, which is similar, but different. I'll use the hardboiled eggs used for decorating (those actually won't be used for hiding) to make egg salad: mayo, yellow mustard, s&p, sweet pickle relish, finely chopped celery, I like mine on toast or in a tomato; hubs doesn't like celery & on untoasted bread.
The forecast still says it will be raining when I go to church tomorrow (arrive at noon for 1:00 p.m. Mass), but the temperature might be 70, which is a lot better than the 40s. Cold tomorrow night, though.
Update: The deviled eggs are plated and refrigerated! 😀 I only sprinkled the splenda brown sugar pinches twice, instead of 4 times, but I squirted slightly more sweet pickle relish. Katie approves! 😀 We talked that there is a difference in sweetness from the sweet pickle relish and the splenda, so rebalancing may have done the trick.
One thing. I boil and peel the eggs, slice them, then mix the ingredients. I add mayo last in small amounts, until it's just enough to make it slightly creamy. Then I let Katie squirt the filling into the egg shells. Hers look so much better than mine. I tell her that. She told me today if I practiced i'd get better at it.
My mother in law Janet (Pam's mom) always asks why I didn't bring deviled eggs if I don't make them. She isn't angry, it's just her way of showing affection. When Pam first brought pies and sourdough bread to family gatherings, my Dad told her she was always welcome to come anytime she had a loaf. Pam knew it was a thank you, and always brought him something.
In a little bit it'll be time to make the sugar cream pie.
Oh, so sad! Middle grandson, age 8, woke up very sick this morning, so he & his mom/my DIL, will stay home in CA. So far, if no one else comes down with "it", son & 2 other grandkids will arrive tonight. They won't leave their house for a few more hours for the airport...
I am back home!
We had a wonderful family visit, the sisters got along well, Janet seemed very sharp and alert.
She shared she was unaware of Pam being a prankster. I explained Pam never took victory laps nor teased her prank victims, she played innocent. Janet smiled at that. We had a good talk, and she is looking forward to hanging with Katie Thursday through Sunday as they quilt up a storm.
One complaint this year: our nephew asked Katie why no spinach roll-ups this year; those are his favorites! Katie was pleased with the complaint and offered to bring some next time.
Our next family gathering will be at my oldest son's house the last Sunday in May. Not Memorial weekend Sunday, however.
Browser ads have served me up some Peanuts gifts. I saw a potential wedding ring, but the Peanuts characters were in a fabric material, and I thought it was not last well over time. My "Athena Owl Ring" wedding band is looking worse for wear. Tbf, I only paid $8 for it. But the ads offered a Kohl's necklace with Snoopy and Woodstock, so I bought it for Katie. She wore it today. She likes it. Being from Kohl's, the original price was probably $13.647 million, but after discounts, preferred shopper, and Kohl's cash I think it cost me $24 (tax included). Although I think the original price might have been inflated a bit.
Sigrid makes spinach balls, which are popular with our dinner guests. I wonder if they are similar to Katie's. Hers are basically breaded spinach, baked. I like them although otherwise I don't eat spinach.
ohhh, spinach enchiladas are yummo!
Katie mixes spinach with something creamy, then rolls it into a green tortilla: she then cuts the tortillas into bitesize morsels. They taste pretty good, plus I get credit for eating vegetables.
cream cheese? That's what I use for all roll-ups
Good morning. Happy Easter! Jesus is risen, alleluia!
The mothership's faith article for today (covering the bases between Passover, Easter and Orthodox Palm Sunday) has an article suggesting that we should show the "Christmas and Easter" Christians who show up this weekend, mercy and welcoming. I tend to agree, and I pray for them that they will take their faith more seriously. (I suspect there are "Passover Jews" to which that applies as well).
Temps are in the 40s where it will stay all day. The rain that came last night brought cooler temperatures.
Happy Easter! May the day bring meaning and joy to all who celebrate!
And just for safety's sake, a word of caution...
As you go about preparing your table fare for today, please remember there are a couple of dozen or so instances every year of folks setting their houses on fire trying to deep-fry Easter Bunnies for their holiday dinner.
BTW... have noticed much talk of deviled eggs, to which I'll add this:
Some Easters back, upon biting into a deviled egg for the first time, one of my young grandsons - who much liked regular hardboiled eggs - almost instantaneously spit out the bite into his hand, causing his mother to nearly have a stroke.
Her horror was at least a bit tempered, and cardiovascular catastrophe averted, when he asked if my wife had made any eggs "without the devil in them" and if so, could he please have one of those?
Job for an exorcist?
IDK... did anyone ask Linda Blair if she makes deviled eggs and if so, what's the recipe?
I’ve been impressed with Google’s Gemini in coming up with pretty thorough summaries and recommendations on my prompts. But last week added some reality. I’d finished a very good novel with a complex story line and characters. At the end I wasn’t sure I fully understood what Character X’s role in a crime was. Gemini gave me an answer that made me wonder if I’d completely misunderstood the story. I wrote back “I thought Character X did this instead…” Answer: you are correct and thanks for catching this! Would you like me to dive into this further? Me: yes. We went through 5 iterations of “Yes, you’re correct and thanks!” I don’t know if Gemini didn’t have access to the full book and just took some wild guesses or what, but I now understand the “This is AI and results may not be accurate” disclaimers. It was WAY wrong in this case.
If you haven’t experienced LLM sycophancy, either you haven’t played around with one enough, or else you might be a little lacking in self-awareness…
The “hallucinations” are more akin to GIGO: garbage in, garbage out. If the data to support something are skimpy, they’ll generate more random, less relevant text based on database material that is less relevant to the issue—sometimes not at all.
Combining those two aspects gives you a fancy tool for reinforcing group-think and making it more stubborn.
I don't experience that "sycophancy" because I don't chat with AIs. I will use ChatGPT (the fre version) as an advanced Internet search tool, but that's bout it.
RE: "reinforcing group-think and making it more stubborn"
We didn't need AI to do that; the plain ol' garden variety algorithm had a lock on that a long time ago...
Truth. That’s been one of the innovations of social media…
I wish I could remember what happened to me recently - I asked a question, & the answer I knew was incorrect so I didn't go further.
My son, from CA, is visiting & has worked in AI since he graduated from college in 2004. Last night I told him every day I opened a newsletter or email about AI, either doom & gloom, or it's going to be wonderful or a combo. He said up until around Dec, things weren't moving 'very fast', but since then it's changing quickly. His role right now is, this is a brief description, he'll draw some pics, write up a description, etc., of what the team has decided they want the programmers to design. But now, what he does could be sending such to AI???? Could those programmers be out of a job? Or find better spots? Their business isn't static, so it can be fairly easily adaptable, thus the programmers most likely aren't 'in trouble'. Nor is my son, altho AI could draw/write something to send to a programmers, etc., etc. This led to some discussion about the engineers would need to be heavily involved regarding security issues if more AI activity began happening... Anyway, this was just a beginning of a conversation... he also wants to talk to his brothers about what they see in their jobs, & what AI might be doing - one works as a forensic accountant, the other works w/ Oregon energy/as an environmental consultant. Both are well established/have been there for several yrs.
In the realm of AI incorrectness... I once asked - don't ask me why, it's a long story - AI what the plural form of "patoot" is. You may be as surprised as I was to learn that it's "potatoes".
so funny! I shared this w/ all.
And as I was brushing my teeth last night, hubs came up behind me and, uh, squeezed, my, uh, & said "sweet potatoes" 🤣
…😂…
Still chuckling at that one!
Me, too! Oh, well... you know what they say - patooty, patahto...
Happy Easter!
https://jlcards.com/QY17j8
We awoke our youngest, who slept soundly the sleep of a good boy. I took the doggos out for their business, as well as feeding them. Except I knocked over Zeus' (the blonde curly one) dog food dish, so he ate off the floor. The good news is that part of the floor doesn't need mopped for awhile!
The deviled eggs, the sugar cream pie, broccoli salad, and cookies are all ready to go! Katie transferred them to a cooler. If you ask why we always have leftovers...
Thanks for the card, Jay. I'm sort of a traditional kind of guy and don't have one with music and animated Easter eggs to send back, but maybe you'll settle for this...
https://apnews.com/video/stunning-traditional-easter-eggs-made-by-women-in-slovenia-3da8617630d34f428a90ac5baf0903c5
My mom used to send Jacquie Lawson e-cards on the holidays, with the cats and Chudleigh the lab.
nice e-card Happy Easter!
I'm still the only one awake.
there have been conversations about list-keeping. When I was a Weight Watchers leader, before the time when WW was online, & we kept journals, then when we went online, I continued to 'suggest' actual journal keeping. And it depended on personality style: 'Write then bite' or 'Bite then write'. I've always been more of a 'write then bite'; I'm a planner, plan my meals, arrange my grocery list from the meals, etc. Anyway, from discussions in mtgs, I would say things like, when you write w/ your hand a signal goes from your hand to your brain...
well, I found this:
Handwriting specifically engages a broader brain network than typing does, combining motor skills, sensory feedback, and language processing all at once. Longhand writing creates synaptic connections that typing does not, and that novel creative challenges like journaling can boost neuroplasticity even in adults.
link to more detail about neuroplasticity:
https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/benefits-of-journaling/?_bhlid=f1e1270a7e3e33db7479162d8b94930dd8939492
I do my lists and everything on paper. In cursive! I don't trust electronics not to just disappear it all.
same here, altho mine might not all be in cursive.
I'm sure all your offspring know cursive
Around the time our kids switched to private school, oldest was entering 4th grade & they no longer taught cursive. They had started teaching it in public before that, but I learned later they quit. I think I've read recently some areas of the country are once again teaching cursive???
I remember going to The Alamo, reading so many letters by those who fought, all of the letters in cursive, thinking kids won't know how to read it!!!
When my dad was young, he was skipped ahead a few grades & he told a story about one of the years he skipped was when they taught how to use the ink well & pen. So he had a real mess on his hands, trying to teach himself at the beginning of that year.
My Offspring all have pathetic writing skills, in the pen-to-paper sense.
I haven't seen any recent examples of mine, so ????????????
Actually, Sheldon has very tidy printing. When he was a little boy, I wondered why it took him so long to copy anything: turned out he was duplicating the type from the books. Could have had a great career as a forger.
or a very important person in very early times, as a scribe
Happy Easter, everyone! He is risen!
Thank you! What a nice reflection to wake up to.
Risen indeed, so everything and everyone can be reborn and renewed!
https://wherepeteris.com/padre-dont-forget/
"The good news is that death no longer has the final word over your life or my life, and we know this because one Person has risen from the dead. His resurrection means that, through him, you too can rise to new and everlasting life. To live in him and to die in him is to live and die in the sure hope of resurrection. Furthermore, we have the hope of again seeing and touching all those we loved in life and who have died."
The last paragraph is especially wonderful. Thank you.
that's a great link, says it all
Placido Domingo, everyone!
Good glorious morning to you & all!
I'm the only one awake, of course. There's a chance that DIL & missing grandson might still come in because they had Southwest tickets, which are easily transferable. Don't know if it would be today or tomorrow... 🤞
Good morning. It has begun raining here. I hope travel goes well for all your family members.
The last time I made deviled eggs - with great care so they would be perfect little boats meticulously filled with fluffy yellow stuff - my husband proceeded to unceremoniously chop them up with his fork and make a sandwich.
That was a long time ago.
I take it he survived the beating?
He's one of those folks who does the unexpected out of pragmatic cluelessness. Sometimes it's lovely, sometimes it means I no longer have to fiddle with deviled eggs.
Thinking about the various deviled egg recipes, I thought about making egg salad, which is similar, but different. I'll use the hardboiled eggs used for decorating (those actually won't be used for hiding) to make egg salad: mayo, yellow mustard, s&p, sweet pickle relish, finely chopped celery, I like mine on toast or in a tomato; hubs doesn't like celery & on untoasted bread.
So your dear hubs wasn't far off the boat...
My mother's mother was the head cook and Easter Bunny. She kept count of the eggs to make sure all were recovered and turned them into deviled eggs.
I can't remember when I last made deviled eggs. The 1980s?
My SIL supplied them for family events in recent years. They were her thing. Mine was pie.
what kind of pie? I prefer pie over cake. I'll have pie for breakfast.
We prefer pue over cake, too. Lemon chess and pecan mostly. For fruit, I prefer cobbler.
We look forward to surprises from Thor.
I like surprises, too 😮
Sometimes he sends us lists of ingredients. Other times he wonks something up from what we have in the house.
And, the sugar cream pie is in the oven! 😀 Our daughter is out for now else I'd have let her lick the saucepan.
Katie complimented me on really getting the sugar cream thick; she thinks that makes it better!
The forecast still says it will be raining when I go to church tomorrow (arrive at noon for 1:00 p.m. Mass), but the temperature might be 70, which is a lot better than the 40s. Cold tomorrow night, though.
Update: The deviled eggs are plated and refrigerated! 😀 I only sprinkled the splenda brown sugar pinches twice, instead of 4 times, but I squirted slightly more sweet pickle relish. Katie approves! 😀 We talked that there is a difference in sweetness from the sweet pickle relish and the splenda, so rebalancing may have done the trick.
One thing. I boil and peel the eggs, slice them, then mix the ingredients. I add mayo last in small amounts, until it's just enough to make it slightly creamy. Then I let Katie squirt the filling into the egg shells. Hers look so much better than mine. I tell her that. She told me today if I practiced i'd get better at it.
My mother in law Janet (Pam's mom) always asks why I didn't bring deviled eggs if I don't make them. She isn't angry, it's just her way of showing affection. When Pam first brought pies and sourdough bread to family gatherings, my Dad told her she was always welcome to come anytime she had a loaf. Pam knew it was a thank you, and always brought him something.
In a little bit it'll be time to make the sugar cream pie.
Oh, so sad! Middle grandson, age 8, woke up very sick this morning, so he & his mom/my DIL, will stay home in CA. So far, if no one else comes down with "it", son & 2 other grandkids will arrive tonight. They won't leave their house for a few more hours for the airport...
I tried to find a single kill switch on my phone for AI, but one had to do them all individually. At least that’s what Google AI says.
Happy Easter, and or Passover for those who celebrate!
Same to you!!