Rosemont Lights at Holiday Time

I wanted to see the two-story Santa in the North Natomas neighborhood that LaToya mentioned, but apparently the owners had taken it down, maybe due to winds associated with the recent storm. Instead, laToya recommended the Rockmont Lights - a project in the Rockmont neighborhood. They go all out there. They apparently go all out at Halloween time too. So, I followed up, and even saw LaToya and Jenn driving around too!

Holiday Barbie Ballet Class

On Tuesday, I went to the beginning-level special Holiday Barbie ballet class at the Ballet Studio. 

The instructor, Katie Rogers (seated, lower right), hosted her first Barbie ballet class during the Barbenheimer phenomenon last summer. I later put out a little suggestion, of doing the class again, maybe even on a semi-regular basis (I suggested Safari Barbie). Katie took the idea and ran with it. The Holiday Barbie class hosted 19 students - probably close to a record attendance for such a small space! As one of two Kens, I brought a fourth-grade, papier-mache, California Mission classroom project that I found in the alley behind my house a few years ago as my Mojo Dojo Casa House. Fun was had by all!

   

Christmas Season 2023

"Waitress" - The Movie

Saw "Waitress" - the movie, starring Sara Bareilles. Excellent! I love the choreography regarding the many small props and set pieces: so hard to do!

 

"Poor Things"

A lot of 19th Century books concerned themselves with Education: even “Huckleberry Finn” fits the mold that “Poor Things” occupies, with the only difference being a girl instead of a boy. Jimmy McGill’s BCS rant to shoplifting scholarship student Kristy Esposito comes from “Les Chants du Maldoror,” written in 1869 for a boy rather than a girl. It’s like history repeating itself. I loved that crazy dance in the movie. I loved the fanciful technology. Emma Stone did great. I also thought William DaFoe was great - he loves Bella so unreservedly. Here is an excellent review:

Since Bella needs to have someone monitor her progress as she learns language and motor skills, Godwin asks one of his students, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), to be a companion for her. Godwin has kept Bella shielded from society, but when Bella gets a taste of life outside — Lanthimos has depicted the impact of seclusion from society since his brilliant breakout film, “Dogtooth” — she becomes hungry for adventure. Despite becoming engaged to Max, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a handsome cad, shortly after discovering how to pleasure herself in a rather . . . resourceful way. “Poor Things” takes off at this point in ways that astound and amuse. 

The plot borrows heavily from “Pygmalion,” “Frankenstein” and “Prometheus” among other narratives.

 

 I really like the dance sequence.

 

Violent Crime Rates Plummeting

Interesting. “The quarterly data in particular suggests 2023 featured one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the United States in more than 50 years.

”The drop in 2023 comes atop a 6 percent drop in 2022, according to statistics released by the FBI in October. Two consecutive years of declines are doubly encouraging, but one reason the rates are able to drop so much is that they rose so sharply in the two preceding years.

Hopeful About the Movie "Lee"

Lee Miller had an outsized influence in the 30s and 40s, and with Kate Winslet's new movie, I hope they've done her justice:

A surrealist with an incisive eye, finding the beauty and absurdity of everyday life. A model who posed for Vogue and sat for Pablo Picasso and Man Ray, but whose fashion career was suddenly cut short. A war photographer who embedded with the US military to chronicle the harrowing events of World War II — and posed defiantly in Hitler’s bathtub on the day of his death. 

Lee Miller was an American artist who remade herself many times without straying from the principles that guided her life and career. When she died in 1977, her photographic work had largely been forgotten; her own family was unaware of the scope of her practice, and what she witnessed in the war, until they found her cache of negatives. Now, five decades later, she’s the subject of the Kate Winslet-led biopic “Lee,” which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, as well as a recent monograph of her work and an ongoing exhibition at mega-gallery Gagosian in New York, where some of her prints are for sale.

Gabe Is Also Intrigued By Vanessa Da Mata

Gabe Sends This Kylie Minogue Interview

Voyager 1 Is In Trouble

So far away, and having computer troubles:

NASA's Voyager 1 probe is currently unable to transmit any scientific or systems data back to Earth. The 46-year-old spacecraft is capable of receiving commands, but a problem seems to have arisen with the probe's computers. 

...When functioning properly, the FDS compiles the spacecraft's info into a data package, which is then transmitted back to Earth using the TMU. Lately, that data package has been "stuck," the blog post said, "transmitting a repeating pattern of ones and zeros." Voyager's engineering team traced the problem back to the FDS, but it could be weeks before a solution is found.

At Last, Someone Who Deserves To Commit Suicide, Commits Suicide

Given all the true injustices in the world, I have nothing but disdain for gun rights folks. It's just sacrificing the innocent for a hobby. I think the premise of the article is that we are supposed to feel sorry for this guy. Sorry. He deserves the most painful death possible:

Owens had a few hours before he had to drive to Wake Tech Community College to pick up his older daughter, Maya, who was taking a final. So he kept walking. As he made his way down Sequoia Ridge Drive, he caught the attention of a neighbor, a woman who didn’t know him but was struck by the way he was hanging his head. That man, she thought, seems remarkably sad. 

Eventually, Owens arrived at the intersection of Sequoia and South Judd Parkway, not far from his house. Cars whipped by rows of well-kept shrubs. Owens pulled out his phone to post a message on Facebook. “In the end, it turns out that I’m not strong,” he wrote. “I’m a coward, and a selfish son of a bitch. I’m sorry.”

Looking Up Old Friends

I wondered, what are old friends from high school doing? I looked up Mark Reece (on the right in this picture). Here is an article from 2012 describing trauma shears that he was working on. Useful!:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An Albuquerque physician teamed with a Sandia National Laboratories engineer to improve the doctor’s trauma shears design so emergency personnel can get to the injuries they need to treat more quickly.

“Sometimes seconds count. This product will make a difference for the medical community,” said Mark Reece of Sandia’s Multiscale Metallurgical Science & Technology group. “It’s neat to see something come out of Sandia that will save lives.” 

Reece worked with Scott Forman, an emergency room physician and CEO of the Albuquerque startup Héros, formerly known as EMvolution, to improve the performance and durability of trauma shears — the go-to tool for responders in the first seconds of a crisis. The shears must cut through a wide range of materials, from denim to leather to Kevlar, to expose wounds for treatment.

Green Valley Theatre Company VerteFée Cabaret - December 16, 2023

Green Valley VerteFée Cabaret's cast poses for photos after the end of the show at The Gathering Place, St. John's Lutheran Church, at 17th and L Streets in Sacramento.

I went to support Rachel and her castmates at Green Valley Theater Company in their semi-annual VerteFée Cabaret.  (Green Valley generally features the best musical theater talent in the Sacramento area.)  The Cabaret was filled with fun skits (which I think should be longer).  It was nice to see a few old friends too, people like Nick Thompson.

Leah Visits Ballet Class

Leah points out her mom, Michele, in today's ballet class. They both took ballet class.  The irony is that I overslept, missed them, and missed class altogether.

Happy Chanukah, Everyone!

@smokeyrobinson #tbt I know what it is now! 😂 Happy Chanukah Everyone! #smokeyrobinson #happychanukah #fyp #fun #classic #goodtimes ♬ original sound - Smokey Robinson

Been Working with Playzoomers All Week

Rachel was cast in "Yes, Santa, There is a Virginia," an online theater troupe active from coast to coast. It has taken some effort to keep everything running smooth:

To begin our final spotlight series, let's meet the cast of 'Yes, Santa Claus, There is a Virginia': MaKenna Spencer, Adam Triplett, Steve Allison, and Rachel Hoover!

• MaKenna Spencer is ecstatic to be playing Virginia in this production of “Yes, Santa Claus, There Is a Virginia.” MaKenna is a freshman in high school. Her recent stage credits include Lucy in “Dracula” at Lincoln High School and Shprintze in “Fiddler on the Roof” with Lincoln Theatre Company.

• Adam Triplett Adam’s love for theater began as a child watching productions at the Music Circus. After a brief detour into film, he has returned to the stage, acting in plays such as “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Ragtime,” and “Something Rotten,” and is incredibly excited to be joining Playzoomers.

• Steve Allison is delighted to add to his long list of musical / theater performances. Steve has played Equity / Non-Equity roles in California and New York and has also performed in TV roles. Steve lives in Citrus Heights and works as a local Hospice Chaplain. This is his PlayZoomers debut.

• Rachel Hoover is thrilled to be making her PlayZoomers debut. Favorite roles include Golde in “Fiddler on the Roof,” Rose in “Gypsy,” and Hannah Pitt in “Angels in America.” Rachel also wrote “Out of the Woods” for “The Vaccine Monologues,” produced via Zoom by Luna Stage in New Jersey. 

• Friday, December 8th @7:30 PM ET | 6:30 CT | 5:30 MT | 4:30 PT Saturday, December 9th @ 9:30 PM ET | 8:30 CT | 7:30 MT | 6:30 PT

Caffeine - Downmarket Fentanyl

Caffeine can be like downmarket fentanyl, a threat to people with certain heart issues - particularly long QT syndrome - and including people like myself. Drink manufacturers put caffeine into drinks where you don't expect it - into citrusy lemonades and orangeades - and then label it poorly or not at all. Customers don't realize they are being threatened. Time to start suing people's asses off:

Panera is being sued again after another customer is said to have died after consuming the chain’s caffeinated lemonade.

Dennis Brown was a 46-year-old man with a chromosomal deficiency disorder, ADHD and high blood pressure who avoided energy drinks, according to a wrongful death complaint filed this week by his mother, brother and sister. A loyal Panera customer, he started regularly ordering “charged lemonade” in late September, according to the suit.

On October 9, Brown, who had a mild intellectual disability and blurry vision along with developmental delay but lived independently, ordered a charged lemonade and is believed to have refilled his cup twice over the course of about an hour and a half, the suit said. He suffered a cardiac event on his walk home and was pronounced dead at the scene when found unresponsive. 

The complaint resembles another wrongful death suit filed earlier this year by the parents of Sarah Katz, a 21-year-old woman who died in September 2022 after drinking Panera’s charged lemonade. Katz was diagnosed with a heart condition called long QT syndrome when she was five years old, and managed symptoms by taking medication and limiting caffeine, according to that lawsuit.

Depeche Mode and Young Fathers - Memento Mori Tour - Chase Center - San Francisco - Dec. 3, 2023

On December 3, I drove to San Francisco with Joe the Plumber to watch Depeche Mode. I was apprehensive about the parking situation there, and finding our way, but everything worked out OK. It was helpful that it was a Sunday evening, and there were few competing events to put pressure on the parking situation. 

Chase Center is a pretty venue! 

Joe is such a classic rock guy. He had never heard of Depeche Mode. even though they've been in full public view since 1980. Ah well. 

Joe and I both liked Young Fathers, the opening act. Joe liked Depeche Mode's first four songs, but then they went in a different direction. I thought the first four songs were weird, and then things got better. 

The tickets courtesy of Eleanor McAuliffe.  Here's the view from the our seats, up in the nosebleed section near the ceiling.

   

I danced several songs on the (very steep) steps. As I did so, others were dancing around me. I want to show some of the people dancing around me.

 

The opening band was Young Fathers. I hadn't heard of them before, but they are quite interesting. From Edinburgh, Scotland:

   

 Here is the entire Depeche Mode portion of the San Francisco concert:

 

"The Holdovers"

I was surprised. A better movie than I expected!

 

Ballroom Dance Reminiscence

Through some oversight, I had never watched Baz Luhrmann's "Strictly Ballroom," (1992) so I fixed that tonight. No one loves Dancesport like the Aussies! 

It reminded me of my days in ballroom dance. In 1982, I was a poor graduate student, but through the generosity of my instructor, Margaret O'Hanlon, I was able to hover at the edge of Tucson's Desert Terrace Dance Studio, and enjoy the brilliant, upcoming dance talent. 

 One instructor in particular stood out - Rick Valenzuela. He was chosen to play the role of Vanessa William's tyrannical dance partner in the 1998 film, "Dance With Me." That film was a dance monument, and featured a number of the top dancers at the time, including Liz Curtis and Natalie Mavor. 

Here, Rick and Vanessa dance:

Elon Musk's Faceplant

I love the recitation here of all the dumb things Elon Musk has done to destroy Twitter:

Musk’s conversation with Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin extended for more than an hour, during which time Musk apologized for supporting the antisemitic post, saying it was the "dumbest" thing he has shared online.

However, that’s highly debatable.

Was it dumber than Musk threatening to sue researchers who documented a rise in hate speech on Twitter? Was it dumber than when he sued Media Matters for America for demonstrating how ads can fall next to racist or antisemitic posts? Was it dumber than when he threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League after they found his site overrun with accounts pushing “virulent antisemitism”?

Was it dumber than when Musk welcomed back infamous neo-Nazis, including the man who created the Nazi site “The Daily Stormer” and was an organizer of 2017’s torch-wielding Nazi march in Charlottesville? Dumber than when he welcomed a neo-Nazi group that was suspended for repeatedly pushing the same “great replacement” conspiracy that Musk endorsed in his post? Was it dumber than when he falsely accused a Jewish man of being a neo-Nazi involved in a street brawl?

Was it dumber than when he drove away NPR by labeling them as government-controlled media and then threatened to give away their account so someone else could masquerade as NPR? Dumber than the whole blue checkmark scheme?

Was it dumber than when he accused Black people in South Africa of openly plotting “white genocide”? Dumber than when he reposted a “white lives matter” tweet from a notorious white supremacist? Dumber than when he said the Biden administration was destroying democracy? Or when he defended slavery? Or when he spent Pride Month handing out “likes” to transphobic tweets? Or when he said the media was racist against white and Asian people, and defended a man who called for segregation? Dumber than when he went to the southern border in a cowboy hat and video game T-shirt to spend a day endorsing false claims about an immigrant invasion?

Elon Musk apologized for one post. But advertisers didn’t leave the site formerly known as Twitter because of one post. They left because Musk gutted the site’s moderation teams, welcomed those who spread hate and lies, repeatedly demonstrated that he was always ready to believe a racist conspiracy theory, and showed he would make a threat at the drop of a hat.

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Interesting story:

As the holiday season of 1938 came to Chicago, Bob May wasn’t feeling much comfort or joy. A 34-year-old ad writer for Montgomery Ward, May was exhausted and nearly broke. His wife, Evelyn, was bedridden, on the losing end of a two-year battle with cancer. This left Bob to look after their four-year old-daughter, Barbara.

One night, Barbara asked her father, “Why isn’t my mommy like everybody else’s mommy?” As he struggled to answer his daughter’s question, Bob remembered the pain of his own childhood. A small, sickly boy, he was constantly picked on and called names. But he wanted to give his daughter hope, and show her that being different was nothing to be ashamed of. More than that, he wanted her to know that he loved her and would always take care of her. So he began to spin a tale about a reindeer with a bright red nose who found a special place on Santa’s team. Barbara loved the story so much that she made her father tell it every night before bedtime. As he did, it grew more elaborate. Because he couldn’t afford to buy his daughter a gift for Christmas, Bob decided to turn the story into a homemade picture book.

In early December, Bob’s wife died. Though he was heartbroken, he kept working on the book for his daughter. A few days before Christmas, he reluctantly attended a company party at Montgomery Ward. His co-workers encouraged him to share the story he’d written. After he read it, there was a standing ovation. Everyone wanted copies of their own. Montgomery Ward bought the rights to the book from their debt-ridden employee. Over the next six years, at Christmas, they gave away six million copies of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to shoppers. Every major publishing house in the country was making offers to obtain the book. In an incredible display of good will, the head of the department store returned all rights to Bob May. Four years later, Rudolph had made him into a millionaire.

Now remarried with a growing family, May felt blessed by his good fortune. But there was more to come. His brother-in-law, a successful songwriter named Johnny Marks, set the uplifting story to music. The song was pitched to artists from Bing Crosby on down. They all passed. Finally, Marks approached Gene Autry. The cowboy star had scored a holiday hit with “Here Comes Santa Claus” a few years before. Like the others, Autry wasn’t impressed with the song about the misfit reindeer. Marks begged him to give it a second listen. Autry played it for his wife, Ina. She was so touched by the line “They wouldn’t let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games” that she insisted her husband record the tune.

Within a few years, it had become the second best-selling Christmas song ever, right behind “White Christmas.” Since then, Rudolph has come to life in TV specials, cartoons, movies, toys, games, coloring books, greeting cards and even a Ringling Bros. circus act. The little red-nosed reindeer dreamed up by Bob May and immortalized in song by Johnny Marks has come to symbolize Christmas as much as Santa Claus, evergreen trees and presents. As the last line of the song says, “He’ll go down in history.”

Spelling Challenges

This business card appeared from the bottom of an expired cereal box....

Trees appear? Treescaper? Trespasser? Cutted down? It would be fun to be a tree magician…. Not even the E-Mail address is safe.

Various Signs Out and About These Days

Exemptees only. (I don't know what this means - it was at the Sleep Center.)

Ghost killers. Will help if you have a ghost. Check up $1.00. $3.50 if hard to get rid of.

Hippies use side door.

This is an NFT.

You're a monk, I'm a monk, we're all monks.

I came back from the dead, and all I got was this stupid hat.

Kentucky on a Map

Adam and Bill Begin Bundling Episodes

Adam Ramirez and Bill Dickey love discussing "Breaking Bad" filming locations. Still, they finally realized they can't devote an entire hour to each episode. So, here. they push through three Season 1 episodes:

 

An Assassination

Drug-cartel violence doesn't seem to be widespread in the U.S. Events like this suggest our happy bliss can change quickly:

A convicted drug trafficker linked to the Sinaloa cartel who worked for the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was gunned down Thursday morning in an industrial stretch of Willowbrook, according to authorities and court records.

Eduardo Escobedo, 39, was one of two men killed in the 14200 block of Towne Avenue, according to officials from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The other victim was Guillermo De Los Angeles Jr., 47.

...Escobedo, whose nickname, “El Mago,” translates to “The Magician,” served four years and nine months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute more than 10,000 kilograms of marijuana and laundering drug proceeds. He was released in 2018.

Raised in East Los Angeles, Escobedo rose to become the primary distributor of marijuana in Los Angeles for Guzman’s oldest son, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, a prosecutor said at a 2014 detention hearing. He laundered the proceeds in part by buying exotic cars and shipping them to Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa and the cartel’s stronghold.

...Escobedo was born in the United States, his lawyer, Guadalupe Valencia, said at the detention hearing. He attended Garfield High School, where he met his wife, and later graduated from a continuation school, Valencia said.

A Fast-Paced Drama

Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Shotgun Players, Berkeley, CA - 11/21/23

Basically, this is a two person show (plus the musicians, of course). I knew nothing about the show going in, except that Neal Patrick Harris (native-born New Mexican from Ruidoso) had played Hedwig on Broadway.

As it turned out, we were there on a night when the understudies came out to play: Chris Steel as Hedwig, and May Ramos as Yitzhak. The Wikipedia article on the show is interesting:

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and a book by John Cameron Mitchell. The musical follows Hedwig Robinson, a genderqueer East German singer of a fictional rock and roll band. The story draws on Mitchell's life as the child of a U.S. Army major general who once commanded the U.S. sector of occupied West Berlin. The character of Hedwig was inspired by a German divorced U.S. Army wife who was Mitchell's family babysitter and moonlighted as a prostitute at her trailer park home in Junction City, Kansas. 

...The character of Hedwig was originally a supporting character in the piece. ... The character of Tommy, originally conceived as the main character, was based on Mitchell himself: both were gay, the child of an army general, deeply Roman Catholic, and fascinated with mythology. Hedwig became the story's protagonist when Trask encouraged Mitchell to showcase their earliest material in 1994 at NYC's drag-punk club Squeezebox, where Trask headed the house band and Mitchell's boyfriend, Jack Steeb, played bass.

...Mitchell, who himself came out as non-binary in 2022, has explained that Hedwig is not a trans woman, but a genderqueer character. "She's more than a woman or a man," he has said. ... He also stated that, while Hedwig is meant to be a queer voice, she is not meant to be specifically transgender: "[The sex change operation is] not a choice. Hedwig doesn't speak for any trans community, because she was ... mutilated."

...The concept of the stage production is that the audience is watching genderqueer rock singer Hedwig Robinson's musical act as she follows rockstar Tommy Gnosis' (much more successful) tour around the country. Occasionally Hedwig opens a door onstage to listen to Gnosis's concert, which is playing in an adjoining venue. 

...She is aided and hindered by her assistant, back-up singer and husband, Yitzhak. A Jewish drag queen from Zagreb, Yitzhak has an unhealthy, codependent relationship with Hedwig. ... (To further the musical's theme of blurred gender lines, Yitzhak is often played by a female actor.)

...Hedwig goes to live in Junction City, Kansas, as Luther's wife. On their first wedding anniversary, Luther leaves Hedwig for a man. That same day, it is announced that the Berlin Wall has fallen and Germany will reunite, meaning Hedwig's sacrifice was for nothing. Hedwig recovers from the separation by creating a more glamorous, feminine identity for herself ("Wig in a Box") and forming a rock band she calls The Angry Inch.

At the rest stop on the way to Berkeley.

Interesting stage.  Ashby Ave. Sit and Spin?

Posing afterwards with the band.

Chris Steele as Hedwig.  A difficult, demanding role! Drag persona.

The band, and others, but including Shelley Doty, Vicki Randle, Katie Cash, and Kofy Brown.

I liked this song.

I liked the finale too.  It reminded me of another song....

This song is quite likely the one I'm reminded of.  Four syllables "Lift up your hands" = "I'm going home."

Various Signs Out and About These Days

Including some Halloween signs.

Exemptees only. (I don't know what this means - it was at the Sleep Center.)

Ghost killers. Will help if you have a ghost. Check up $1.00. $3.50 if hard to get rid of.

Hippies use side door.

This is an NFT.

You're a monk, I'm a monk, we're all monks.

I came back from the dead, and all I got was this stupid hat.

The Royal Family 2019

The precision of this New Zealand crew is amazing!

 

Kate Sends These Wonderful Swing Videos!

Been Busy

Strangely enough, I've been beating my February SWPACA talk into better shape. Way too early, but best to be prepared. 

Meanwhile, the saga of Joe the Plumber's life goes on. Joe had his pickup truck stolen at Costco early in October, and it badly affected his income. This month, two satisfied customers each gave him an automobile, so now he has two vehicles. He still has to fully replace all his tools, but he's doing much better.

George Santos, Fraudster and Statesman

George demands a Constitution more to his liking:

Santos then endorsed a fringe idea that's been gaining traction in state legislatures to convene a new constitutional convention, which could radically alter the founding document through a process that political scientists say would likely favor conservative states.

"It is a disgusting politicized smear that shows the depths of how low our federal government has sunk," Santos said. "Everyone who participated in this grave miscarriage of Justice should all be ashamed of themselves. We the People desperately need an Article V Constitutional Convention." 

"We are quickly approaching $34 trillion dollars in debt, the government is continuously on the verge of a shutdown, our southern border is wide open, our current President is the head of an influence peddling crime family, and all this Congress wants to do is attack their political enemies with tit for tat unconstitutional censures, impeachments, expulsions and ethics investigations," he added.

Venn Diagram Of My Life

Pursued by Jasper

I suddenly got a hankering for Mexican food, so I jumped in my car and drove away down the alley, towards Jim Boys restaurant. In the back yard, Mr. Separation Anxiety (aka, Jasper the Dog) was completely unprepared for my abrupt decision. I had locked the gate to the back yard, but I didn't set the additional little animal fence properly, so Jasper was able to squeeze through the little gap between the fence and the gate and quickly chase me down the alley. 

As I approached 24th Street I thought I heard barking - familiar barking - so I stopped. It was Jasper! He plopped himself in front of the car, placed his two front feet on the car's front bumper and tried peering with big baleful eyes past the headlights and through the windshield in order to make eye contact with me. What could I possibly be thinking? Was I going somewhere without him? 

I opened my car's door to encourage Jasper to jump inside, but he refused. He turned around and using a kind of canine semaphore of the sort Lassie used to employ on television, led me back home, to safety, and to where he thought I properly belonged. 

I had to make sure to lock Jasper inside the house in order to finally make the savory trip to Jim Boys. I gave him a bit of enchilada too, since he protects me from Taco Tuesday, and squirrels, and belligerent cats, and any number of other dangers too.

Returned the CPAP Machine

I just couldn't get a handle on it. The active sleep-assist device kept me up at night until I cast aside the mask in desperation for sleep. I finally threw my hands up and chucked it back at the Sleep People.  Maybe someone else can benefit.  Not me.