Week of 20260503 – Copilot; Prodded Conference Council; Back to Zumba; Jar Salads; Dirt and Flowers; Road Rage; Public Library; Rolling Shelves and Rebar; Young Single Adult Emails Assembled
= Sunday, we accidentally arrived early to church; today is the monthly fast and testimony meeting; individuals who feel prompted bear a brief testimony. A few bits: People are seeking more light. The Savior is light. We can make obtaining light more complicated than it really is. Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins so we can all repent and be in joy and happiness with our families. Our Heavenly Father’s plan is for us to become all he wants us to become. Find ways each day to access Jesus’ atonement for us.
= During Sunday School (held in two parallel groups to make participation easier), I heard a high-pitched wail from the chapel. A sister had taken a call in the foyer, moved back to the chapel, and the reaction set in: her only son had just collapsed and died. This is hard.
= Home, we set up a workspace for Steph in the craft room and she worked on her planner. We had Kraft mac and cheese with Korean Barbeque-flavored Spam. We interacted with the Birmingham Young Single Adult Conference Committee. Then Steph went to bed; I followed before 11.
= Monday, I invited Fran Constant, a long-time neighbor, for dinner; she'll get back to us with a date. At work, I used Copilot in the browser and in Excel, until I had reached my limit for the day. Steph has been using Chat GPT to gather information to help her do credentialing of therapists. After work (and a nap for me), we went to Zumba for the first time since our return. Steph used to teach it at this facility. We know the participants, and the teacher recognized Steph from a Zumba convention.
= Tuesday, we attended Toastmasters via Zoom. (The building was unavailable to guests such as us today.) Scott Burbank passed along advice about how to polish a speech. Steph was the timer; I inserted colored objects (such as a banana for "yellow") in front of her signals. I led Table Topics.
= Wednesday, AI created convincing summary text and tables that were wrong; it didn't understand the context. Steph managed to get some answers for her tasks. Then we went to Dollar Tree to assemble gift bags for Steph's lady co-workers for Mother's Day. We worked separately on the podcast and journal. It rained furiously.
= Thursday, I bought peat moss and manure to mix with vermiculite for our planters, and flowers to go into a planter under the craft room window. I had a doctor's appointment: all normal except for ringing in my left ear. Then turning onto Eastchase Parkway and then toward Five Below, I ticked somebody off who tailgated me. He drove around me and stopped to tell me off, then followed me for a bit as I kept going, away from my destination, until he got tired of the chase. I bought items at Five Below, found items at a Dollar Tree on Taylor Road to complete the gift bags Steph was making, and bought items from Walmart.
= Friday, I had something to talk about at the AI meeting: I can direct Copilot to work from multiple Excel tabs at once. Our primary Date Night activity was the public library downtown! We each set a PIN to use online resources going forward and explored the updated facility. The biggest changes for us were that the stage has been removed from the meeting room where Steph and I attended Area and Division Toastmasters functions, and the area for patrons to use library laptops has tripled in size. We hung out until the restaurant I had selected opened. Alas, the restaurant was packed 20 minutes before we found a parking place, and we settled for another restaurant nearby. Home, we watched a very early Jackie Chan movie, then episodes of The Closer until 0100.
= Saturday, I bought two rolling shelves for the sewing room; we had thrown away its rickety shelves when we moved. Then rebar to run through the planter legs into the ground to keep wind from blowing the planters over. We did tasks related to the young single adult conference; we now finally have the available names and emails for potential attendees from an area stretching from Mobile to Huntsville.
Steph with Sheila Stinson, outside the chapel
Fresh eggs from a good friend; notice that they're not all one color on the outside but are similar on the inside: like people.
Working in her planner in her craft room
Kraft Mac and Cheese with Korean BBQ-flavored Spam
Collaborating with Steph to help the 2026 Birmingham Young Single Adult Conference Committee. (We're advisors.)
Spritzing our bonsai with a mist of water
The new cat litter (to the left) has finer granules than the previous cat litter (to the right).
[The new stuff is cheaper and seems to be working better.]
Fail. Don't put chocolate syrup in the cup before liquid ingredients.
Sunlight, redirected by car windows through the windows at the top of the front door..
As sliced by the entry lamp
We're finally back in Zumba.
Suspicious split between the vehicle gate halves.
Salad spinner equivalent from Ollie's Outlet. Steph expected to fill it with water to rinse salad and then be able to spin it empty. I had expected it to dry rinsed salad: a task involving much less water.
Assembling salads in jars for the next three days
Dressing and hard items go on the bottom.
Banana peppers, shredded cheese, tomatoes, greens
Don't Miss This (scripture conversation)
Misting (at about lunchtime)
Toastmasters was via Zoom today; "our" building was unavailable.
Grady Springer was Toastmaster of the Day.
Our mission motto was: We can do hard things - cheerfully!
(I embellished my Cheerios.)
Rice noodles and toppings
With hash brown patties. I had mistakenly thawed them.
Fatter than the average tanker. It carries methane refrigerated liquid. "The largest component of natural gas is methane" -- eia.gov [U.S. Energy Information Administration]
See the gecko? No big multi-colored lizards as in Ghana.
We don't know how, or whether to put this plant back into the soil.
Find the gecko
A reminder, via sign and loudspeaker
Steph's adjusting the mirror that would provide a view of passengers.
Assembling Mother's Day gifts
The planter hadn't been anchored yet. The wind and rain had been pretty hefty. I scooped up our bonsai.
Vultures have found something I don't see.
Is there a disconnect here?
Books-a-million moved to Eastchase. The facility now houses "octa pharma plasma"
The planter is too wide to sit completely outside the window; it would catch water from the roof. So, part of the planter is on the windowsill and the legs have rebar run through them to keep the assembly stable with only two legs instead of four.
Doesn't look like much, but to the ear and naked eye, it's a jet.
U-Haul picked a fossil to represent Tennessee..
uhaul.com/SuperGraphics/tennessee/
Yes, there is such a thing as a standalone Dollar Tree. There, I obtained missing items for the gifts Steph was assembling.
Winnebago Travato. At 21 feet with a short nose, it would provide comfortable travel, but it retails for more than our house appraised for a few years ago.
It sports a double bed; bath; and kitchen. winnebago.com/models/product/motorhomes/camper-van/travato/2026-59g
This has a State Government tag. Is it used for student drivers?
Flowers outside Steph's craft room window for Mother's Day
Vermiculite is in the shed (not shown). It will be mixed with peatmoss and manure for the planters.
The dirt in the wagon is what I dug up to let the vehicle gate open freely. I'm keeping it to spread on the front lawn to mend renter damage when I have the time and energy.
You can see the mist from the mister.
I put one too many layers of stuff under the litter box, raising it to discourage pooping standing up outside. Elsa dragged the litter to the entrance, and the weight imbalance toppled the box.
The window says: I hope something good happens to you today [smiley face]
This guy is to the right of the license plate. Someone else will have to interpret.
Staffers may enjoy outdoor lunches soon.
Our destination for tonight's date night: the public library!
We renewed our cards and got PINs for them so we can use its online resources.
An illustrated outdoor bench. Remember Curious George and the man with the yellow hat?
Replicas of terracotta warriors
We have attended Toastmasters Area and District functions here. The stage is gone..
Old books have been moved to a more secure location across the hall.
Ample tables
and projection room
A case in the rare books room across the hall contained materials regarding the "Todd Road" incident of 1983.
I've since read three diverging versions of what happened. It made national news.
Some books in Korean. Some books in Spanish.
Confederate monuments. Not surprising. This is the "birthplace of the Confederacy". Don't erase history; learn from it. Balance it. Eight months after her death, this library was named for the person who committed suicide when she was driven out of her position as librarian for her letter writing and other activities in support of civil rights. It bears that name today: Juliette Hampton Morgan Memorial Library.
I couldn't take a good photo of this "technology room" on the second floor; patrons need privacy. But it is very well-provisioned.
When Steph gained a fresh card and mine was renewed, the person who helped us pointed out that patrons can us the library's special access to Ancestry.com if they do it here.
I spent almost an hour looking at "graphic novels". (We were stalling, waiting for SaZa's restaurant to open.)
A newspaper dedicated to balanced reporting at a crucial time
Masons are everywhere, including Montgomery.
(Masons are in Ghana, have been for a long time.)
"At the start of the Civil War, the city had a larger population of enslaved people than Mobile, New Orleans, or Nachez, Mississippi."
At not even 6 PM, you needed a reservation to sit inside SaZa's. Having none and not wanting to sit near the light rain, Steph spotted "Jalapeño's in the Alley". This was just part of the menu.
The chips were thin and tasty.
Steph was determined to make the best of it, However their version of a chimichanga was small, not tucked in on the ends, and a little burnt.
I had ample chicken but not much else.
We shared a chocolate burrito for dessert. It was good.
You can make out the remains of a Hershey's bar.
At Jalapeño's, this painting in a hallway depicted resolving "unfinished business" at a not-so-distant future date. The choice of 29th parallel (Chad vs. Libya; Chinese vs. British in Vietnam) doesn't seem to fit that description. However, the theme could readily fit almost any conflict.
The guitar on the railing has real strings, Steph pointed out. (This is the front of the Hank Williams Museum.)
When we left on our mission, our Toastmasters club hosted an Open House that doubled as a going-away for us here. The restaurant folded while were gone.
Rooftop dining elsewhere; they didn't mind a little drizzle.
Steph wanted to make it clear how grotesque she found this weird pink thing.
MGMWERX - Accelerating ideas into action
Courtrooms used to occupy this building. Now there's an art center on the first floor.
Steph says this bank is hard to miss if you know what to look for.
Elevation Hotel and Convening Center
Next to Montgomery Square, a place that teaches about "The Montgomery Decade that Changed the World" -- montgomerysquare.eji.org
This intersection just beyond has changed in our absence.
Utilities: some active, some not. I locked the power box so a thug will need to bring tools or be very obvious to cut the power.
Just a blurry reminder that we saw The Closer. Before that, we saw a very old movie starting Jackie Chan (then spelled Jacky Chan).
The sewing room is becoming a repository for excess stuff and so currently isn't usable. We talked a while back about getting more shelves of the type we use in climate-controlled storage, but for the sewing room. I followed through on that today.
The bonsai has plenty of water, likely too much.
I moved the two units to the living room and left them there. Steph and I both had laptop work to do.
But my choice of seasonings wasn't sweet enough especially after including a half can of spinach.
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