The only Boomers (sorry it's pegorative- that's not what I intended) I liked were my mother and father. The others, starting with my mother's sister and brother, and working outwards to first cousins, etc., and including my father's brother and his wife, etc. were the most self-centered, most ruthless people I've met. If my opinion sounds harsh, that's ok with me. This has been my experience. I agree that not all people fit into generational labels nor labels in general. But I think it's fair to label the WWI generation as such; they fought in WWI. WWII, the same. The large generation born post-WWII is a generation. I now see that the name they were given is pejorative. There's nothing I can do about that. This generation had children sometimes in their early 20's (in my mother's case 19) and I can assure you that this led to Gen-X. Who thought of "X" and why is a mystery to me. I'm not trying to "label people" and there are exceptions to every rule.

Well... Sinner's Prayer, the second in the series of Dan Randolph/Greg Zhu mysteries, is available in paperback, or Kindle ebook from Amazon, or EPUB ebook at Rakuten Kobo, and multiple other locations as well. Just sayin'.

Quince.com has linen relaxed fit button/collared shirts for $34; I’m planning to order some for Mr. AM and see if they fit. Quince has some nice discounts for new customers. I have a couple dresses and a pair of pants from them, nice quality.

We used to have a secret patch a couple blocks away, but someone didn't leave the bases so they are played out. I've found a few in the median in front of our house, but only about 3 in 33 years.

Thank you all! I edited the audio and now you should be able to crank it without blowing it or your ears out. lol I adjusted it so I could turn the volume all the way up on my MacBook Pro using headphones and the listening level is still comfortable.

I'm keenly awaiting next year's trip. Makes the news worth watching

Reported here, too-- Link to video Background is: he, in error, is operating under the assumption that China and Korea ? tested nuclear weapons, when they only tested weapons capable of delivering them; then he ordered (as yet not happened, planning stage) nuclear tests to be done on American soil. So, all things considered, when he asked for the nuclear codes, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (if I understood correctly) allegedly flat out said, "No."

I hear you.

@Mark thank you!! I would love to hear your Chopin!!

Some of our "Social protection" category is paid with dedicated taxes in trust funds. The % shown is abysmal, not withstanding. I'm surprised the "Defense" category is such a low %, when the defense budget was 1 trillion and was recently (during Trump II, year 1, passed and signed) raised to 1 1/2 trillion. I'm not sure why a 50% increase was deemed necessary. To add to this category, I believe but could be wrong that the budget for some or all of the intelligence agencies is kept secret. The politicians have a fainting couch on hand when it comes to domestic spending, but it seems the sky is the limit for debt creation vis a vis defense spending, including, of course, foreign wars, and decades of tax cuts.

Looks great. After having to cancel trips to Japan in September and April we are going to Denmark, Oslo, and Stockholm in June.

Tomorrow we hit 75. I'm going golfing in the afternoon.

@Axtremus The early LED lamps were prone to “singing” when used with certain dimmers or dimmed down very low. Sometimes it could get pretty loud. The problem seems to have gone away with newer lamps. Or maybe not. Maybe they just sing very softly now and your hearing is sensitive enough to pick it up.

True story. My Doc of eight years had a receptionist with a bigotry problem and she didn't hide it. Well, one day she was upset about something, and followed me into the examination room, as if that was her business. The RN (I've known the whole time) being above her, bosses her. She said, "Get out!" I looked right at her, and with the same tone and volume, said, "Get out!" She never messed with me after that.

I haven't paid much attention to this American Pope to be honest. I'll find out more about him one day. The Pope, head of the Catholic Church, and secular head of state of Vatican City always interested me. The friction between HH and Trump doesn't surprise me. Is there anyone Trump gets along with who isn't a sycophant except Netanyahu who's in a category by himself?

We've destroyed or better to say badly damaged UNESCO sites. Does UNESCO condemn these acts stemming from a war of aggression? No. UNESCO issues tepid statements about its "concern." UNESCO has, in effect, abandoned its remit. It's yet one more example of the troubles the West's institutions seem to be having these days. I knew this would happen. It happened in Iraq. Who knows how much more destruction of historically and culturally significant significant sites and objects will occur. Iran (It's Persia, actually-- "Iran" is a word the British made up) is a target rich environment. This happened in Gaza (Gaza City). The amount of damage of centuries old sites at an ancient crossroads of civilizations will take decades for historians to recount on paper only for some record to survive for the future.

I finally figured out what I needed in a pen. Ballpoint, not gel, fine (.7?), black ink, not retractable, the cover fits on the top (to not get lost). I had to pay almost $4 for it. I have retractable colored gel pens. A basic set of colors. I got rid of the yellow because the ink was almost invisible. I got rid of the purple because I knew I wouldn't use it. I have orange, red, blue, and green. I have enough #2 pencils to last the rest of my life. I'm rotating two and keeping one sharp at all times. The weak link in my system is the fact that my pencil sharpener is plastic, little, and cheap. I'm getting bored of these colors. I'll add more at some point. I'll definitely buy a duplicate to my black pen even though it's refillable. All of my pens are Pentel brand. I recommend them. They are well made and ergonomic. The black one and the colored ones are different product lines as you'd expect but each pen has an indented rubber grip for your thumb and index finger. This collection was completed recently when I bought my black pen. I started off eight year ago buying boxes of Bic pens. They were uncomfortable to use. Sometimes they would write and sometimes the same pen wouldn't do anything but scratch holes in the paper.