Hi, and welcome to TNET. The Prime Directive applies, even more so here: don’t be an asshole. Peas are optional. This is a place which is safe. You can be serious, silly, supportive and all things in between. You can argue too, but keep arguments about the subject, not those arguing. If there’s a problem, holler in thread or email me (there’s a link on the sidebar.) Have fun. The tentacles in a tea cup design is available at Urban Threads.
First!
Oh, I should have known. Well, I’m not PZ and I don’t much care about ‘first’ silliness. Of course, that might change one of these days. ;)
heh
The weather has gone very cloudy and cool again. I could use some effing sun today. Oh well. Must work.
Caine @ 4 Would it help if I pointed my shaving mirror west. I don’t have much use for it any way? 8-)
Ice Swimmer, sure. Couldn’t hurt. :D
*proffering an appropriate Blog-warming gift*
Howdy, howdy, howdy!
:)
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Hallo, Cicely! You could always crucify some rats for me. (Woke up to a whole set of paints with lovely holes chewed in them.) This crew is really campaigning for living life in a cage.
nice to see you all, Caine I apologise for the upcoming blizzard, the weather always knows when I have to drive to Fargo
Oh no, a blizzard? Fuck, I knew it. Good to see you, Broboxley!
Hello! I really like the logo, Caine.
Hi Jim! Thanks. I should have noted that the design is available from Urban Threads.
Proposed topic for discussion (serious or silly): Corollaries to Murphy’s Law.
My contribution to start things off: Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.
;)
I want that design on a coffee mug.
Also bonjour in general. I try to peek in at your photos. *major thumbs up* I’ll probably try and stop by here from time to time, too. Glad to see you with your own space here!
Hello.
(nothing more to add at this moment -- too tired)
I owe an apology to the rattophiles here.
Over in the Death To Squirrels blog, I used the term “tree rats” as a disparaging term for “squirrel”. I’m sorry. Rats are fine upstanding creatures and in no way deserved being compared to the scum of the rodent branch of the chordates.
I have no excuse, other than a lifetime of conditioning through stories about plague and sinking ships.
Don, no worries. Our property abounds with tree rats, er, Fox squirrels, and I often have less than friendly thoughts about the little fuckers.
Oh, I do believe Cicely has nothing nice to say about the squirrel branch of rodents, either.
*pokes paw at thread, muses, is this thread really endless?*
Sunny and 56 f keeps luring me outside to putter in the gardens, check which of my foolish bulbs have a death wish, and soak up some natural vitamin D. I see that a spring blizzard is expected to cross the plains , though it looks like it may track far enough south that the north tier of states might just get the cold wind, and no snow.
I should have myself glued into my chair and made myself work, but procrastinating in favor of warm sunshine in March was totally worth a late night.
Window garden update:
Now the second batch of the herbs has been sown. This time mint, lovage, dill and chives. The chives from the first batch, sown five days ago have already grown some green shoots.
Almost all the usable space is already in use. I may have to build something so I can have plants in two levels when they grow and have to be re-potted. (Or I could have less herbs, which doesn’t sound so appealing.)
Now it’s just hoping for sunny days, watering and wishing that the bugs like my cranberry juice/balsamic vinegar/dishwashing fluid traps better than my herbs.
@ChezJake Says #13-
I’ve always loved that one!
Another favourite of mine is Ginsberg’s Theorem:
1) You can’t win.
2) You can’t break even.
3) You can’t even quit the game.
Wikipedia tells me it’s about thermodynamics, but I always think of it as “Ginsberg’s theorem of Life.”
Caine: I’d rather not harm the ratties, if it’s all the same to you. :)
Indeed I don’t!
In other news…the squirrels in our attic have gone.
They’ve been replaced.
By raccoons.
This is not an improvement.
:(
--
Cicely:
Oh fuck. My sympathies.
*Goes back to dealing with @!@$%^&%^*$% rat rats.*
Cicely, whatever you do, DON’T try what I tried to get rid of attic pests.
On the advice of a friend, I tossed around a boxful of mothballs up there. Little did I know the fumes would permeate the house and poison me. I had to move out temporarily, then have the insulation completely removed, clean the attic thoroughly, and reinsulate. Not an inexpensive proposition, and it all happened in the dead of winter to boot.
I thought for a while I’d ruined my house. Pretty much brought me to tears at one point.
Maybe hiring a professional critter-catcher would be a better approach.
We had a problem of animals getting into our eaves area (a brick wall separated the eaves from the attic), but that problem was solved when we re-roofed the house and cut down a couple of trees that raccoons could use to access the roof. The scratching sounds at night went away.
[off topic] After exercising the Redhead for what seemed like eons, we now have her standing with assistance for over 20 minutes a few times a week *waves Kermit hands*.
I am now officially retired. I was tired prior to leaving work, and I am tired again *glares in the general direction of the Redhead*[/off topic]
I hate my species.
That is all.
Nerd of Redhead @ 26
Yay for progress in rehabilitation.
DonDueed @ 25
Ouch. I think I’m never going to buy any moth balls (not even sure if they’re available in Finland).
Cicely @ 23
My sympathies as well. Hope you’ll be able to plug all the raccoon-sized holes in your attic at some point.
DonDueed:
Ah, see, we’ve already made this particular mistake! It was completely ineffective at discouraging the rodents, while offering the same disadvantages you mention.
Also-ineffective approaches included cayenne pepper juice, sprayed liberally; and replacing the missing-and-presumed-eaten plastic vent covers with aluminum vent covers (the little bastards chewed right through the metal! Didn’t even slow ’em down.); and battery-powered, sonic rodent-discouragers.
Hiring professionals is currently not in-budget, alas.
--
Yay for standing Redhead!
Janine, you were caught in the spam trap for a bit, don’t know why, but it’s all good now.
Except, you do get to quit the game!
Hi Caine, nice to see you with your own FtB blog!
Hi ya, Nick! Great to see you here, I hope I see more of you. What have you been up to lately?
Friday Feathers #32.
The mildly deranged penguin comes charging in — the new
holedoor shouldn’t be a problem, it will let more raccoons, tree rats, and peas in — sniffs a bit, and starts to pout. No cheese!! What good is an eturnal spool without cheese?She suggests the Murphy’s Law corollary: It already went wrong.
Which has its own corollary: Multiple times.
That that has its own corollary: More often than you think.
Blf! :D
Always happy to see the mildly deranged penguin make an appearance, no matter how “crash-y”.
O’Brien’s corollary to Murphy’s law: When you want something to go wrong, it won’t.
Hi Caine, everybody!
Hey, CJO! Good to see you.
This is unprecedented.
The party developing across the street is playing vintage John Denver.
Instead of the usual electroemobubblegum.
I locked the door.
They’re probably aliens.
My fun with rodents these is Probe roulette. The neighbor put up a bird feeder outside of their kitchen, and squirrels nest in a tree in our yard just across driveway. When I arrive home from a shopping expedition, the squirrels scurry from under the bird feeder where they are grazing to the tree, waiting for the last second to make the dash. So far, no flattened rodents.
Made the Redhead a sandwich last night we used to get back in the YooPee. Three slices of pumpernickel, with sliced corn beef (from St. Patty’s day), Swiss cheese, coleslaw, turkey, and thousand island dressing for a true multi-layer sammich. Goes with your favorite beer.
I ♥ pumpernickel.
I’ve never quite managed to make it.
There is consoling available for this affection, e.g., the SPLC (Southern Penguin Lift Course-of-Action), or Penguins Anonymous (not to be confused when Penguins Atomized, which is a hate group, closely watched by the SPLC (South Pole Law Centre), SPLC (Society of Penguin Lovers and Cooks), SPLC (Secret Penguin League of Cheeses), and, to a lessor extent, Pingouins sans Frontières, but not by the SPLC since Penguins Anonymous is not based in the USA). However, watch out for the SPLC (Southern Penguin Life Course), which is not only a scam but also doesn’t involve cheese.
Yep, I like the stuff too. I know I’m a terrible baker, so I never even tried to make any.
The mildly deranged penguin did try (or at least that’s what she claimed in the aftermath, as we watched the lava slowly cool and speculated about the screams). She said she was having a very hard time catching the pumpersnails (once they take off, they are extremely elusive and evasive, albeit apparently can get tangled in long hair and, for some reason, bagpipes). Nickelodeons can be found, but most are the tamed variety. The proper wild unicorn type is so rare most people have never heard them, or even heard of them, excepting, of course, virgins, who aren’t believed since they are even rarer. And female.
All of which makes it clear why long-haired, bagpipe-playing, female virgins make the best pumpernickel. Short feathered tuxedoed ex-dinosaurs smelling of herring and dribbling cheese crumbs and MUSHROOMS! fragments and shouting are almost as bad as baking as I am…
Hey, Everyone!
Happy Jesus is Dead All Day Day!
blf!
*long-delayed pouncehug*
Cannot advocate allowing more squirrels and raccoons in, whether they come with peas or not.
:(
Must remember to warn Brother to check his bagpipes for pumpersnails.
I can’t imagine that the effluent would sound any better if it were made…soggier.
(Truthfully, Brother plays the pipes well; pity they always resist so vigorously.)
--
The time is 22:40 MST.
-6 UTC.
I could tell it is Easter. Had to make a pilgrimage to a local family-style restaurant (which serves multi-course meals), and get takeout for the Redhead. She wanted the roast lamb, mashed potatoes, veggie, cream of chicken with rice soup, salad with creamy garlic dressing, and bread pudding for desert. Went early to make sure they didn’t run out, and purchased a non-lamb meal for me while I was at it. She will get several meals out of it.
Monday Mercurial #32: adorable.
Adorable indeed!
--
:D They are cuties, no question.
@ 49 -- 51
Nah. I mean they’re fine specimens and all, but these are big, ungainly brutes compared to “the Red ones” (Sitta canadensis) Now, those are adorable. (We have pines nearby, and maples, so we get both on occasion).
@Nick Gotts 32:
Point of philosphical nit-picking: when you quit, there’s no “you” anymore. Hence the difficulty.
@chigau 40
Holy _____!
“Lock the door?!”
Lock the door, push the furniture in front of it, retreat into the basement, and pray (ha, ha) that the microbes in the environment get them before your supplies run out…
Thanks for asking! Well, most recently, coughing a lot! Chest infection, originally misdiagnosed as, or else developing from, “chronic rhinitis” (medicalese for “Yer nose keeps running”), which unfortunately coincided with the first time I’ve seen my wife, other than on Skype, for nearly two months. At her parents’ place, to make it worse -- they are 90 and 91, so I’m very concerned in case I passed it on -- I wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t felt I’d got the all-clear as far as infection was concerned. She’s returning to Turin today, I’m back in Scotland; I was increasingly feeling the lack of anything much to do in Italy, and I’m writing a paper for which I needed my main computer to run statistics, not the rather feeble laptop. So I came back to arrange some maintenance on our flat here, finish the paper, and campaign for the Scottish Green Party in elections for the Scottish Parliament on 5th May -- the party leadership are hoping to increase seats from the current 2 to around 10, although I think that’s optimistic. After that I’ll go back out for a few weeks, and her contract finishes at the end of July, so the end’s in sight. Overall verdict on Italy: a fine place for an extended visit, but I would rather live in Scotland.
Nerd @ 41:
That sandwich sounds delicious. Pumpernickel was one of several breads MrsB used to make periodically.
Nerd @ 48:
I usually try to roast a leg of lamb around this time of year, but have been way too tired to contemplate it. Which have greatly disappointed everyone in the house. It sounds ridiculous, but I may have to “force” myself to make one this weekend.
Giant rats do good works
I know the time is wrong -- we’re all on NY time, so as to not mess up a new post plug-in.
Lofty @ 56:
Yes, they do. Not just the giants, either.
Starting a new month here at TNET. I was in the sauna and swam in the sea earlier this evening. The sea water is already 2.5 degrees celcius above freezing. If it weren’t for the bare trees, brown grass and temperatures one could have thought it’s summer already.
I’m at this moment in a club, waiting for the gig to start. The artist is Ismo Alanko, who is a big name rock star here. Search for his name or Sielun Veljet, L’Amourder or Hassisen Kone in youtube if any of you is interested, L’Amourder is the only act of his that has done anything in English. Sielun Veljet and L’Amourder were very physical rock, not metal, though. Hassisen kone was new wave and the solo stuff goes in all kinds of directions.
Oh gods, swimming sounds so fabulous. Serious envy here. I’ll be at youtube this evening, looking them up. I don’t care if stuff is done in English or not. I’ve found Finnish to be a remarkably easy language to pick up and follow, song wise. Oh…he’s a cellist as well. I’ll definitely be lookin’ stuff up. Thanks!
Missing any rats? Florida Panthers penalized for too many rats on the ice
Blf:
No, and boy, did that photo make laugh, and I missed the chorus of The Sea Song that Jayne was singing with me. Now we gotta start all over again.
I am able to decode that about as well as I am able to decode the hockey stuff in the story… I believe a horse has just landed near you, upside down, and caused the yogurt to reveal itself as a swarm of probably alien bees, which is quite weird because you’ve got yer tinfoil hat on and are in a Purple Submarine (they were all out of yellow dental floss at the deli).
Blf:
Jayne & Doll, the monster dogs, they like to sing (that would be howl expressively in dog), and they have favourite songs. When it’s a favourite, I am required to howl (sing) along. Their top two faves are Symphony of Pain (acoustic version) by Mono Inc, and The Sea Song by Apocalyptica. They also go full court howl on anything by HIM.
Right, got it, the bees weren’t alien, “it was the horse”.
blf @ 60:
I had to check the date of the post, to confirm it was recent.
(Being a long-time hockey fan, I remember when the rats first appeared.)
Please, please tell me the rats story wasn’t a prank! If real, it’s just so … awesome!
CW: Serious illness.
The Ontario (er, Canada, not California) health system is a wonderful thing, truly; but by gar, the wheels, they do grind slowly! I was diagnosed with melanoma (a relatively thin, uninvolved tumor, but still) late in December of 2014. Surgery to take a lymph node for biopsy (sentinel-cell biopsy -- basically, a way to tell if cancer cells have spread from the original site) was February 29. Today, at my oncologist’s, I found out that this biopsy came back negative; never have I been so happy to fail a test! So, major, major HOO-RAY! moment, but couldn’t they have given me the good news sooner? By e-mail or something?
quotetheunquote@66, The rats story is not a prank. As jimb@65 alludes, there is a tradition of rats-on-ice, but usually after the game. This thingy called Teh Intertubes will quickly confirm…
“The”, so relieved for you! Congrats.
Great news quotetheunquote!
The gig was great. Now he was backed by 5-member band, I think the last gig before this that I saw was a duo gig with multi-instrumentalist Teho Majamäki some years ago. Both gigs were intense. “Säkenöivä voima”, “Karjalan kunnailla” and “Rakkaus on ruma sana” were the strongest pieces.
Hooray for the late but good news, quotetheunquote.
Ice Swimmer @ 70:
I’ll be sure to look those up in particular. Now I have Jykevää on rakkaus in my head. :D
I’m in Vancouver.
The fucking tulips and fucking daffodils and fucking magnolias and fuck knows whatall is all fucking BLOOMING.
in a hotel, watching TV
American drug commericials are awesome!
*photogenic family frolicking in a field*
(no idea what the drug is for)
voice-over
“may cause dry-mouth, internal bleeding, high blood pressure, hair-loss, fainting, low blood pressure, divorce, lactation and a land war in Asia”
and yay for good news “the”
Chigau @ 73:
That must be really fucking nice.
Caine #76
It is.
Back home everything is fucking grey-brown and mouldy-stinky.
This place is kinda smug.
But can the dogs howl it?
blf @ 78
The song is the Dusty Springfield piece “I only wanna be with you” with Finnish lyrics. The Finnish title of the song means “Love is massive”.
chigau,
I love magnolias in bloom. Even better : oleanders.
Blf @ 78:
They don’t care for the song much, even though it’s sung by Ville Valo.
Greenland has okayed same sex marriage, and the church is fully on board. Living in uStates, it’s really refreshing to see that there are truly civilised places in the world.
Sounds great Caine, just imagine how many progressive people can migrate there once the ice has melted and drowned the climate deniers.
Lofty:
It’s a pity nature isn’t so selective. We’re all going to get nailed by climate change, we already are. That doesn’t take away my happiness at seeing people being accepting, especially the bloody church, because that sure as shit isn’t the situation in most places. Living in uStates, I’m sick to death of all the fear, hate and bigotry, so if you don’t mind, I’ll take a tiny dose of happy wherever the fuck I can find it. And I’d move to Greenland in a second if I could -- anywhere except where I am right now.
I don’t have a television, but I get plenty of ads from online streaming services. I have no idea what the most recent drug they are touting may treat, but I snort every time I hear “may cause internal bleeding, seizures, or death. If your toes become painful, swell up, or turn red, blue, or purple, seek immediate medical attention.”
I hope the toe symptoms precede the death symptoms. It is extremely hard to seek medical help while having a seizure or dead.
————-
Caine
I sent you some photos, hopefully? Not sure if they are any good/ useful, if the insect series is truly in focus, or if my eyes are being extra obnoxious about focusing this week. Just wondering if the e-mails went through, or disappeared without a trace because of too many attachments?
Tethys, I got them, no problem! Your bug photo will be up tomorrow, and the bubbles and flower on Monday. The bug shots were all very dark, but I think you can see the wasp like shape well enough.
Now that I’ve discovered TNT, I’m confused between TNT, Speakeasy and Discuss: [..] threads ,so I’ll just post this here too:
Polish church is trying to completely ban abortion.
With the current Polish government, they have a good chance of succeeding.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/31/polish-prime-minister-favours-ban-on-abortion
So much for Europe (as a whole that it isn’t) being a progressive haven.
RE: 67, 68, 69, 71:
Thanks, all.
To celebrate, the Significant Other and I spent all of Saturday indulging in mad, passionate, uninhibited bird-watching . We just binged, like crazy people -- must have seen upwards of sixty species. In the blowing snow.
Boy, are we ever middle-aged.
“the”
Utah & Texas looks like they will be rocking places this Wednesday, each with a miraculous apocalypse (trigger warning for child rape):
(Grauniad)
The mildly deranged pengion predicts a giant slab of Brie will deorbit and cause cheesestorms all over the region. She’s off the Massive Orbit Cheese Vault (acronym MOON due to poor clay tablet craving many years ago) to make this happen…
Beatrice, thanks. I’ll post about that tomorrow.
Blf, I just gone done reading that. Fuck, all the Jeffs brothers need to be put away, with key tossed into the Mariana Trench.
Beatrice@87, The relatively-new Polish “government” is a trum-pratism prototype (albeit without the nuclear weapons and economic clout). They have already attacked press freedom, judicial independence, and the rule-of-law. And yes, they are in bed with various greedy kooks and crooks, including the raping children cult. One current mad scheme is opening up Europe’s last remaining primeval forest (Białowieża), a UNESCO World Heritage site, to large-scale logging.
“Fuck, all the Jeffs brothers need to be put away, with key tossed into the Mariana Trench.”
Not so quickly -- they might just find it. I’m all for cutting the key in half and dropping half in Lake Baikal and the other half in the Mariana Trench.
Can’t be too careful. . .
ただいま！
There was amazingly shitty wifi at that hotel.
On the Polish “government” plan to ban abortions, Thousands protest in Warsaw against proposed abortion ban:
The article also mentions then plan includes “[reinstating] a prescription requirement for ‘morning after’ emergency contraceptive pills.”
Ugh, the current Polish government … doing their level best to turn back the clock, while “developing” (i.e. destroying) their natural environment. How did it come to this? Everyone was so distracted by how downright awful Putin is that they didn’t notice?
Monday Mercurial #33: Blue Portrait.
The Catholic church has always had an iron claw around Poland’s heart, and they aren’t about to ease up now, with the church losing power elsewhere in the world.
It’s always the Horses, blf.
Always.
I want no bees, alien or otherwise, in my yogurt.
--
quotetheunquote:
I applaud your failure!
:)
--
chigau, here in Springfield it’s the fucking trees and the fucking grasses.
I am not interested in mating with them.
No means no!
*wiping eyes&counting-down to Moar Drugz Tiem*
What doesn’t cause a land war in Asia?
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Caine:
Now now, let’s not be so hasty!
Why drop in the key, when we could drop the Jeffs brothers themselves into the Trench? Recycle those valuable nutrients!
--
Heya
Just sending greetings to all of you from my most favourite city
Caine, I’ll drown you in pictures once I get home
I got my paws on a macro lens
Cicely:
Even better!
Giliell!
Looking forward to it! Oooh, a macro lens. I want one.
Right now the lens is borrowed with the option to buy it
I think the owner and I will agree on a reasonable price.
A nice 60 mm one for the Canon
Giliell:
Oh good, that’s a nice way to add lenses. I have a 50mm, but I rarely use it. It’s difficult to get used to, you have be surprisingly far away from your subject. I’m much more accustomed to using my 18 -- 135mm for macro shots. It allows me to pretty much be on top of something, and get ferociously detailed images.
What have the bug-eyed deep-sea fish done to so annoy you?
Either: A Dark Star planet-busting bomb?
And/or: Two fluffy bunnies and Teh Flud using Single Malt Scotch. (It has to be two fluffy bunnies — the Rabbit of Caerbannog, e.g., will not work.)
blf
Nothing, but think of the poor hungry snot worms down there.
Rather random question: Does anyone happen to know if Neosporin is available in France (esp. “over-the-counter”), what it might be called, or a substitute?
I cut my thumb on way out of the restaurant tonight, and whilst dressing the (very minor) injury, noticed my tube of the stuff — purchased in the USA a long time ago — is not only running very very low, but also seems to have expired sometime before the Big Bang. Hence, I need to replenish / replace my (dwindling) supply…
I’ve consumed enough vin and other antibiotic preservatives tonight so as to (1) Not worry too much (other than perhaps “wasting” some of the supply); and (2) Being unable to cast a spell for Generalissimo Google™…
Hagfish, despite being slimy (like the Jeffs brothers (and for that matter, the thugs, including teh trum-prat and teh crud)), are useful, cute (at least in comparison), and should not be so callously poisoned…
I’m sure if you brought the tube into a french drug store they could provide you with a equivalent triple antibiotic ointment, if not the same brand as Neosporin.
Caine, I sent some photos, hope they came through. There are two sets, one of fog photographs and another of sea, sunsets and seaweed. I’m not sure if they’re good enough.
Ice Swimmer, got them. Working on them now, they are fabulous. I wish it got foggy here, but fog is a rare happening on the prairie. I’ll post them tomorrow.
blf:
Why, nothing.
I just thought that the deep-sea ecology might appreciate the change of diet…after all, eating whale shit all the time might get old. Ordering-out for some foreign shit every now and then seems like an agreeable notion.
--
Ice Swimmer—you take good pics.
Just thought you should know.
;)
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cicely @ 111
Thank you. I try to take good ones. Then I vacillate between arrogance and insecurity.
I’ve managed to put on two pounds, taking me to a whopping 102 lbs. 10 more to go to get my docs to stop yelling at me. And it would be nice if most of my effing jeans fit, rather than threaten to fall down constantly. 00 shouldn’t be a size.
I had to check.
Our bathroom scale is an antique.
It claims I weigh about 117lbs.
Which is about (+/-5lbs) what I’ve weighed for 50 years.
no matter what I do
It’s mystical.
….
I do not grok WimminsSizing in clothing.
I buy my jeans from the menz half of the store because:
30 waist
32 inseam
pretty easy to understand
it is a statement of actual measurement
,,,,,,
in the wimminz part it’s:
2 waist or
0 waist or
5 waist and
32 inseam
.
so fuck that
Chigau @ 114:
Yeah, I’ve always been thin, but I’m now dangerously underweight for my height, and it’s proving to be very difficult to put any weight on.
Higgs bosons, how do they work?
Caine
I hate hate hate that
shite.
…
My increasing arthritis decrepitude is contributing to a decrease in muscle-mass.
My weight remains the same.
therefore…..
blf
wait
Wasn’t Gilligan a boson?
Try the new Mariana Trench© Plan™: Go there and wait for incoming Jeffs brothers. They will possibly be slightly chewed-on by your neighbours, the bug-eyed deep-sea fish, but this (1) Tenderizes them a bit, and (2) Means you’ll also have some well-fed bug-eyed sushi to snack on…
Chigau:
I’m no fan of it myself. That said, my normal weight of 112-114 lbs is perfectly acceptable for my height (66 inches / 167.6 cm / 5’6″), and puts me in the proper BMI range (should be 17 to 18). I’m getting dangerously close to 16 BMI right now. It’s been a fight to keep my weight at 100 lbs, let alone over. Health-wise, I’m okay. Since always, whenever I’ve been stressed or uber busy, I just shed weight. The past four months have been…rough. I haven’t been able to get out from under sustained stress, so my weight won’t rebound like it normally would.
I didn’t need my docs to point out the problem, I was already aware of rapidly achieving skeletal status. And here I sit typing, stressed as fuck again, and also not sleeping again.
Blf:
:Laughs: Not the most appetizing menu.
If anyone needs some ten pounds of body fat, I’ll happily send it to you.
I m wondering whether I’ll see health professionals accept the science on weight and health within my lifetime.
Giliell:
Believe me, if it was possible, I’d accept in a second. I have zero padding, starting to resemble a starvation victim.
Caine, I wish I could gift you some of my weight. Mine is 106. Kilograms, that is. It’s starting to mess with my mountain biking, a wheel, a seat post and a front axle have broken since xmas. Perhaps I’ll have to go cold turkey on my dark chocolate addiction. Shudder.
I also tend to being very thin, and as I age I’ve have a hard time maintaining myself at ten pounds underweight unless I force myself to eat 2500 calories a day. I can rarely be arsed to cook for one so I end up snacking and eating only one large meal. Chocolate helps, but I too wish I could simply accept weight from one of the people with the opposite type of metabolism. It’s cold here for critters without insulation and my face wrinkles and backside would really appreciate some more padding.
Lofty:
I wouldn’t envy you that. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, so I don’t generally have sweet stuff in the house. Lately though, I’ve eaten what seems to be a ton of fuckin’ cookies (which the rats like) and chocolate. No result.
Tethys:
I’m clueless about caloric intake, I’ve never had to mess with such things. Yeah, I’m still in “where in the fuck did my ass go?” shock.
Rick cooks when he’s home, and I always stuff myself on his meals. I’ll cook for myself if I’m making something that can be stored and heated up for 3 or 4 days. Otherwise, I just stuff on whatever is available. I tend to eat a lot of fruit, rice, pasta, that kind of thing, stuff which I have been informed, doesn’t put much weight on.
Caine
Yep, I will make big batches of meals and then heat and eat. I also tend to eat food that doesn’t put on weight. I really miss cheese just because it is so calorie dense that I could consume an abundance of calories in one meal. I got some chocolate peanut butter last grocery run. At 170 calories per 2 tablespoons I’m hoping that It will help me find my ass. I can easily manage to eat two pieces of peanut butter toast.
I tend to get absorbed in the creative process, or working and don’t want to stop/ forget to eat. Also apparently a very bad thing, according to my Dr..
So… today I realized that I can dye acrylic yarn with my blue and violet hair color to make ombre gradient yarn that usually costs 15.00/ 25.00 for a small skein. The dip dye didn’t come out as well, but I’m sure I could recreate the effect with a little experience. I think I’ve been doing this making a living at my art thing all wrong. I’ve got my experiments drying right now, but if it proves colorfast I think I’m going to try selling supplies rather than end products. It’s certainly a lot less work to dye many skeins of yarn than it is to make one lace shawl, and they make affordable machines that will wind it back into a skein for me.
Well, conventional thinking would say that’s a reason to avoid the new Mariana Trench© Plan™ as you’d be under a lot of pressure there.
However, mildly deranged penguin thinking (patent-pending, as soon the patent examiners stop running away screaming), says all that new Mariana Trench© Plan™ pressure is just what’s needed. It’d make you smaller. So the BMI would go up (same mass, smaller container). Problem solved. And with a sushi lunch swimming in.
Tethys:
Oh fuck yeah, I know. Same thing here, been that way always. I get the same lecture. It’s not my docs I have to be concerned with though, it’s my pancreas. Pancreas isn’t happy anymore about too many skipped meals.
Blf:
There’s my first de-stressing laugh of the day. Thanks.
Hmmm, I guess I just like eating and cooking too much
Tonight was a delicious chickpea stew\soup with lots of leftover veggies since it’s the last meal I cook in Spain.
And yeah, I have a very sweet tooth.
I’m trying to shed the final thesis and final exams pounds again mostly because I don’t want to shop for new jeans and because there are big advantages to fitting the last “regular” size. Apart from that I am trying to get exercise, which is much more important to both my health and well-being than a number on a scale.
I am not a number!
Caine, if you can figure out a way to transfer it, I’d be happy to donate up to 100 lbs. of my surplus tonnage to you.
:)
You, too, Tethys!
--
Women’s clothing sizes have no basis in facts.
My (unevidenced) suspicion is that the “size creep” over time is at least partly because many stores charge $2 to $5 extra for “plus sizes”, making it lucrative to rate as many customers as “plus sized” as possible.
--
blf:
“The All New, physics-defying weight loss plan— as the pressure goes up, your weight goes down, down, down!”
--
Tethys:
And that would be me!
:)
--
Giliell
I love eating, but now that my children are all grown and gone it sometimes just makes me sad to cook for one. There is no one to eat the quantities my favorite recipes make. I grew up in a huge family, and I can’t seem to make small quantities of tasty food, and I cannot abide or afford wasting food. Some things make good leftovers, or can be frozen, but for the most part constantly having to cook, eat, and clean-up feels like an enormous annoyance.
The only time I have gained weight like the majority of the population is when pregnant. I was very unhappily pregnant the third time, and I ate my stress all the way up to double my current mass. I’m not sure of the exact top number because after I hit the 200 pound mark at 8 months I refused to look at the scale at the midwife appointments. It took five years before I was back in the range of my pre-pregnant weight after I quit eating for comfort.
My midwife was fine with the gain as long as all the other measures were good. They understood that the last thing I needed was a lecture on keeping myself attractive. It was so lovely to experience medical professionals who let me close my eyes and not even know the dreaded number. . My Dr in previous pregnancies constantly nagged me about guarding against gaining ‘too much’. I personally have never had much control over it either way, and mostly just want my clothes to fit and not to shiver all winter.
Giliell:
I don’t care about numbers on a scale. What I do care about is the fact that people who lose too much weight die. I don’t want to die just yet.
And I’d really like my breasts and ass back.
cicely
Ain’t that the truth. I despise shopping for clothing and none of what fits me is a consistent size even though I am pretty much the dimensions that clothing designers use as a standard sample size. If it fits in the body, the arms and legs will usually be several inches too short ever since most USA clothing manufacturing moved to Asia. Occasionally I will find a pair of jeans with European sizing that fit me perfectly, but even different colors of the same size and brand will vary as to their actual measurements.
Clothing Size Uncertainly Principle (Off-the-shelf Interpretation): The stated measurement does not fit, what fits is not made. (I.e., if it is made, it does not fit.)
Murphy’s Zipper Law: The zip will always jam at the most inconvenient time possible, in the most awkward position possible. The difficultly of unjamming the zip is proportional to the accessibility to the zip.
blf @ 136
With respect to Murphy’s Zipper Law: I had a bathrobe with a zipper at one point when I was a kid. Once (at home, luckily) the almost worst-case zipper scenario happened: my foreskin tangled with slider of the zipper. I don’t remember how me and my parents managed to get them untangled, but somehow it happened.
In jackets, the zipper seems to be the first thing to fail and compared to buttons, damn difficult to fix.
whoinhell puts a zipper on a bathrobe?
Peas. Probably also horses. They are out to get out you.
One of those outs is redundant, probably the one caught in the zip…
Seasonal humor
--
Well. Those two pounds I put on? Gone. Back to 100.
I scream
A comic interlude from 2 years ago:
Ice cream flavors
Friday Feathers #34: Pecaaaaaaaan!
Reminds me of a certain Doctor Who episode… check for any Adipose running around and going Wee!
Caine
Can you digest cow milk?
’cause a wee bit of butter on everything you eat can add to your fat layer.
I can’t tolerate drinking milk but I can butter my bread and crackers.
…..
We make a Vat-o-chili for an Event every year.
It has been as vegan as possible for a long time.
The more omnivorous folk sometimes whinge, I tell them to drop a tsp of butter into their chili.
Works so far.
Both the mildly deranged penguin and myself would give them† a bucket full of any remaining very spicy hot chillis, and invite them to adjust the taste.
† She would pour the chillis over the person’s head and eat any unescaped cheese; I’d just hand them the bucket and try to find some of the escaping cheeses.
Ice Swimmer @ 143:
*Love*
Chigau:
Oh yes. I’ve been drinking chocolate milk and butter gets slathered all over anyway. Had two Indian Tacos yesterday, will have more today. Been a bit less stressed the last couple of days, so here’s hoping it bloody sticks.
Caine @ 149
Thanks for rescuing my comment from the crop of the spamdragon!
—
Peasant recipe time:
Back when I was delivering newspapers, I made this thing on Saturday (weekend papers were big and heavy):
Baked porridge
1 liter/ 2 pints milk (cow’s milk or oat milk, probably other milks are ok as well)
circa 2,5 dl / 2 cups of groats (can be at for example barley, rice, buckwheat, spelt or millet, dosage depends on the grain and desired thickness of the porridge)
(salt)
onions
eggs
butter (oil)
Wash buckwheat or millet if you use them. Grease a deep ceramic ovenproof pot with oil or butter. Put in the groats and milk. Add salt to taste if you want. Stir and put in an oven. Set the temperature to 150 degrees Celcius/300 Fahrenheit. After about 1 hour, stir and reduce the temperature to 120 Celcius/250 Fahrenheit. If you don’t want brown surface cover with a lid. After the groats are soft and have absorbed the milk, turn off the heat and leave the porridge covered in the oven.
Cube onions (1 or 2 / serving) and fry in butter in the skillet (to taste). Boil 1 or 2 eggs / serving (soft or hard boiled depending on taste). Serve porridge with onions and eggs.
Ice Swimmer @ 151:
Oh, Rick adores porridge. He’ll make that as soon as he sees the recipe. (And yes, I will eat some too.)
Peasant recipe time — The mildly deranged penguin points out there are no Peasants in that recipe, not even any Pheasants (other than, perhaps, as eggs). She does agree both can be quite tasty, and young Spring Peasant very much so. However, both tend to be rather expensive and hard-to-find.
Also, needs moar cheese!
blf @ 153
I suppose with a sufficiently large oven one could bake a stuffed p(h)easant over the porridge (letting the latter catch the juices from the meat and stuffing) and serve it with chevre. 8-)
Lately I’ve been making blueberry pancakes for the Redhead’s breakfast a couple of days of the week. On the days she stands, she eats a quarter of a 4-egg omelet with potatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, red onions, and some (usually only 2 varieties) of bacon/ham/sausage with cheddar cheese for breakfast (obvious planned overs). Since the blueberry pancakes have appeared, the fourth quarter has been mine to consume. Yumm…
Caine
Oh, I was strictly talking about myself. There can be serious issues if weight goes to extremes, I know that.
Also, I’m looking through my pics. I’ll just upload to flickr and let you grab what you want, OK?
Here’s the first batch. I still have to look through 1100 more.
Digital photography, eh?
And then I forget the link….
https://flic.kr/s/aHsky3w435
Giliell:
That works, thank you!
Sounds like me. I love taking photos, but going through them? Not so much. I keep trying to take fewer photos, but I’ve had limited success there.
#155 kicks us to the next page?
Chigau:
Looks that way. I can change it, what number is best?
Monday Mercurial #34: a bit windy.
Caine
I don’t know.
Something weird.
Okay. Set to 420.
Good choice.
Awww.
So flufffy! Uh, I mean … so Downy!
Carbonara wars: why Italy is right to be mad about a French farfalle travesty:
Hey! What’s wrong with using crème fraîche — I sometimes use a bit, albeit I never call it carbonara; it’s “some sort of pasta with a sauce made from whatever is on hand, penguin feathers, and insufficient MUSHROOMS! and cheese because you-know-who ate them”.
Blueberry pancakes…mmmmmmm!
--
Pancakes! And yes, I ate all of them, saving one bite for Grace.
Blf:
I love the stuff, but it doesn’t belong anywhere near carbonara.
Cicely:
Same wavelength!
“The”:
I think fluffy suits in this case. :D
I just had a very good lamb stew for lunch, but dammit now I want blueberry pancakes!
There’s still dinner…… :-)
More on The Case of the Crème Fraîche « Carbonara », it turns out the Italian did it with their own Pasta (obviously in the Kitchen), French website behind panned carbonara recipe paid by Italian pasta firm:
No mention of blueberry pancakes, although I am now wondering what sort of creative interpretation Demotivateur would devise…
Window garden update:
As almost all the space for growing the herbs was in use after sowing, I built a shelf/table that stands on the window ledge/sill (inside) from a glulam oak plate (1200x200x18 mm, bottom), a glulam pine plate (800x200x18 mm, top) and pine lumber (33x33 mm and 15x45 mm, the upright parts and braces), that’s about half the height of the window. With additional space I was able to re-pot dill and parsley to bigger pots.
Now I’m again out of space. Re-potting basil and lovage will become necessary in a few weeks and mint and lemon balm soon after that. There are three solutions:
1. Bugs will eat my herbs and the deciduous trees growing outside the window will finish the job by casting their shadows on my window.
2. I will give away part of the herbs.
3. I will build more space for the herbs.
The mildly deranged penguin points out the solution to most vegetation problems is a flamethrower. Also works on horses.
Professional Tip: Have an escape route in case any of the vegetation happens to be Triffids, vegetarians, vegans, or peas. They are rather more mobile and tend to become annoyed at being on the wrong end of exhaling dragon…
Sometimes people really DO get all worked up over nothing
Nothing! Nothing!!
Nothing!!!1!!!?!
I’ll, I’ll, I, I’ll show you Nothing!
See? Nothing!
NOOOOTHINNNNNNGGGGGGG…
Ah yes, the famous quote from Sgt. Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes, “I see nothink, I know nothink.”
Now back to nothink until the Redhead calls me for exercise.
the famous quote from Sgt. Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes — followed by, if I recall correctly, the canned laughter…
Reminds me of one of my favourite Wizard of Id cartoons. King gives a speech on the balcony, polite laughter ensues. King and Rodney walk inside, Rodney says “we have canned laughter”. Something is thrown against the outside wall with a “bonk”, plaster falls off the inside wall. King ducks and Rodney remarks, “they have canned tomatoes”.
Pity I’ve never been able to find that one on the web.
It was a good thing I looked down before grabbing my tea mug and taking a drink -- there was a wasp, helping themself to a drink. Wasp was relocated outside, everyone happy.
The standard advice when you’re outside drinking a pint during the British Summer — that’s those rare minutes when the Sun isn’t hiding behind some clouds, it’s not raining (much), and you don’t need a parka — is before sipping / guzzling / quaffing and falling over, is: Check for wasps! The buggers also like sipping / guzzling / quaffing, but instead of falling over, they then usually drown themselves in the beer.
Blf:
Yep, I know about beer, they seem to be quite fond of it. I wasn’t expecting one on my tea this morning, though. I keep it fairly dark in my studio until I feel prepared for serious light (and I process photos in very low light too), so all I initially made out was “fuck, there’s something very large on my tea!” First thought was a spider,* until I got a closer look.
*The orb weavers chez Caine are fond of tea.
Speaking of cartoons, and nothing -- Gahan Wilson certainly knew about nothing; I think he had nothing all figured out.
Wasps? You have wasps? Cor, spring must really be arriving where you are (at last). We’ve still got snow (a tiny bit).
“The” @ 182:
Just a few here and there. No Spring yet, it’s a bit early. There are always some wasps that come out of hibernation a tad early, and often end up coming in a window for the warmth. I will be keeping a right close eye on my tea before I drink! It’s a nightmare, thinking about accidentally ‘drinking’ a wasp.
Now, I’m covered with a generous amount of oil paint, and stink of turpentine, so I’m off to clean up.
Translation: She disguised herself as a wasp, but didn’t quite get the hang of the stinger, and is now off to take a beer bath.
Oh, it’s icing like crazy outside.
Now it’s snowing. Heavily.
Hmm. I see recipes. Here’s one which may be of some interest:
Dutch Baby, or, the Pancake of Doom
Needed equipment
A paella pan. If you’re not sure what that is, look for a round, shallow, wide pan with a flat bottom and sloping sides; any pan which fits that description should do nicely.
Mixing bowl. For this specific rendition, a 2-quart (2-liter) mixing bowel should suffice; if you want to make a bigger Dutch Baby, a larger mixing bowl may be indicated.
Eggbeater. I heartily recommend an electric beater, but if you prefer a manual eggbeater, that’s your business.
Measuring cups. You’ll want two — one for the milk, and one for the flour. Unless you’re okay with using the same cup for both milk and flour, in which case, go right ahead [shrug].
Functioning oven. You’ll want the pan to have a lot of empty space above it, so arrange the cooking racks accordingly.
Ingredients
Four fresh eggs
Milk — 1 (one) cup , or 250 ml
Flour — 1 (one) cup, or, again, 250 ml
1 (one) stick of butter — 4 ounces (120 g), that is
Instructions
Start pre-heating the oven. 375 degrees Fahrenheit, or 190 degrees Celsius for those of you who live in a country that’s gone metric.
Use the eggbeater to blend the eggs together into a yellowish goop. Set the beater/blender on ‘high’; you want to force a bunch of teeny little air bubbles into the batter in colloid suspension.
Add the milk to said goop, blending all the while.
Stir/blend the flour into the egg/milk proto-batter.
After the oven reaches the desired temperature, put the butter in the pan, and then put the pan in the oven.
Keep stirring/blending whilst the butter is hotting up.
When the butter is completely melted, pour the batter into the pan.
Cook for about 12 minutes, or until the batter is a friendly golden-brown with inviting ‘hills’ billowing up from its surface.
When the pancake is done, its edges should be rising/curling up like a big bowl (see also: “empty space above the pan”). Together with the billowy hills in the center, it’s quite impressive-looking.
Carve that sucker up like a pizza pie. Serves as many as 8-12, depending on how big you make the slices.
Variations
The recipe scales up or down nicely, depending on the size of the pan you’re gonna cook it in. Let N be the number of quarts (liters) of water your pan can hold; you’ll want N eggs, N/4 cups (N * 60-odd ml) of milk, N/4 cups (N * 60-odd ml) of flower, and N ounces (N * 30 g) of butter (up to a maximum of N=4 — as long as you’ve got enough butter to ‘wet’ most of the pan’s bottom when said butter melts, you should be good to go). Yes, the recipe above assumes a pan that holds four quarts. Personally, I use a six-quart pan, hence I need 6 eggs and 1.5 cups apiece of milk and flour; when it’s done, I slice it into 16 bits like any self-respecting hacker-type would.
Margarine can be substituted for butter with little/no ill effect.
The butter gives it enough flavor (salt) that this can be (and often is) eaten as it stands. At the same time, the recipe is sufficiently ‘neutral’ that you can get away with adding a wide variety of other ingredients, if you like; you can add sliced hotdogs to the pre-cooking batter, or slather fruit preserves on the finished pancake, or add pretty much anything else within arm’s reach of ‘edible’, really.
I’ve been told that this recipe is basically “Yorkshire pudding without the drippings”. This phrase may inspire some ideas amongst those of you who are more familiar with British cuisine than I am.
I have tried using ground-up rice in place of wheat flour. The taste is pretty much unaffected; the resulting rice-based pancake is somewhat… ‘heavier’, I suppose is the best way to describe it… than the usual wheat-based version. Key point: Make sure the rice is thoroughly reduced to powder before you stir it into the batter! To whatever extent the rice kernels remain kernels rather than powder, your pancake is gonna have some real dense pockets in it.
Cubist @ 187:
That sounds fabulous. I don’t have a paella pan, so that’s something to put on the list of stuff I want for the kitchen.
Caine @ 188:
No paella pan? Unfortunate. If you have a wok, maybe that might serve? Haven’t tried cooking a DB in a wok myself, but that sounds like a worthwhile experiment…
That “Dutch baby” recipe is flying under false colors!
And here I had my mouth all set for a proper atheist’s breakfast!
--
Apologies if there is a more appropriate post / thread, First Nations community grappling with suicide crisis: ‘We’re crying out for help’: “As Canada’s small community of Attawapiskat grapples with more than 100 recent suicide attempts, focus turns ‘hundreds of years of trauma’.”
Blf, it’s fine to post anything here. Thanks for linking. Post is up.
I have a paella pan
I’m afraid your recipe wouldn’t get most of it dirty ;)
It resembles something I know as “German pancakes”, which doesn’t resemble German pancakes at all but which makes a great breakfast for many people where you don’t have to stand in the kitchen but can eat with your friends
Because of an afternoon nap dream
I made a connection between the Gabor sisters and the Kardashians.
(dream was about reincarnation but the dates don’t work)
anywaaaay
Zsazsa aten’t dead!
(but she is not well)
I had a post half way done before I realized the rats had been dancing on my desk and turned on my Lakota keyboard. Eeesh.
Like so:
I had a post halŋ way done beŋoše I šealized the šats had been dančing on my desk and tušned on my Lakota keyboašd. Eeesh.
StevoR has been banned by Mano
http://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2016/04/17/whats-the-problem-with-southwest-airlines/#comment-4334801
Chigau @ 196:
“We didn’t start the fire”? Really? Fuck, he’s gotten worse.
You forgot the Eye of Newt.
Our cherry tree is blooming.
Our lilac tree is budded up, but no where near blooming. Still gray and wet here.
I first read that as “Our cherry tree is booming”, which surprised me, since I didn’t think cherry bombs were grown.
I suppose explosive flowers are an evolutionary adaption to widely spread the pollen as far as possible as quickly as possible, and have some fun whilst doing so.
Gad, the asses over at the ‘pit sure do give me a lot of clicks.
Caine #202
Enough for a cup of coffee?
Chigau:
Yeah. Maybe a donut, too.
Perhaps that are fiends, I mean friends, with the rats?
Or just like chewing on paint tubes…
Blf:
Chewing on me, more like. They’re going bugfuck over the So Guilty… post, most likely having fun calling me a hypocrite or some such. And they call us baboons.
A click is a click, so that’s more for all the bloggers to share.
Oook!?
At least it isn’t the M-word…
Blf:
True. I think they went baboons because of the brightly coloured asses, but I don’t remember much anymore. At some point, one of them will look in on TNET, and have an ‘oh fuck’ moment over actually sending pennies my way, and it will stop.
I remember StevoR….
:(
--
Saw a red fox when I was coming home. I first thought it was someone’s dog, but after seeing the tail it was clear to me that it was a fox. It didn’t seem to be in a hurry and certainly didn’t run, but it disappeared quickly and nonchalantly in the shadows before I was able to photograph it.
This is a sort of suburban area with a lot of parks and small forested areas, so the red foxes have places to hide in. There are also hares and feral rabbits to catch.
We have red foxes here, but I haven’t seen one for years. They stay well away from people.
SO had a cadiac catheter ablation.
Cardiologist used the word ‘success’.
Chigau:
Scary. Glad to hear it went well. Rick’s boss is going to have the same procedure next week.
chigau @ 212
It is a good word to hear, I think. A bit less to worry about and better life quality for the SO in the near future?
Caine @ 211
Foxes like to keep a low profile her as well. This is the second time I’ve seen one in the wild. In both times it was dark save for the street lights and in an urban or suburban setting.
The Red Fox and Coyotes compete for territory here, and the Coyote are winning. I still see one occasionally, but not like 15 years ago. I knew where several Fox lived on the banks of the Missouri river in Bismarck, ND.
I hate a Fox crossing a road in front of me while I’m riding motorcycle, as they will cross 3/4 of the road, to the safe side, and change their mind and dash back to my side at the last second! I have ended up nearly crashed, with Foxtail hair on my boots, that’s how close I’ve gotten to running them over. Crazy doglets!
Instead of crazy doglets, I should have said “Stupid like a Fox”!
Dakotagreasemonkey:
Oh c’mon, it’s not their fault. Vehicles are hardly natural. I was thinking, the last time I saw one was in the city, up on Ted’s hill. We’ve got to hit gravel this year. I wonder if we’ll ever see another badger. Oh, that was in winter though, wasn’t it?
You can’t say the coyotes are winning, either, at the rate fucking farmers kill them.
Cubist, Re post 187:
That Pancake of Doom recipe intrigues me. I don’t have a Paella pan, but found them on the net. Until I can get one, I’ll use a glass Pie pan for a two serving DoomCake. Same shape, minus the handles, and built for the oven.
I do have a skillet that is that shape, and as paella is a stovetop dish, I’m going to try to cook that as well.
Thanks for the culinary adventure!
Badgers in winter? Ok, according to Wikipedia, American badgers do come out of their burrows in the winter while European badgers block the entrances to their setts and sleep all through the winter.
If it weren’t for ice swimming, I’d like to do like badgers and bears and sleep from October or November to April.
Caine,
We saw the badger in early summer, when the bees had just been brought back from their road trips to pollinate crops out west.
ND Fish and Game has had several articles on the Fox/Coyote territory wars over the last several years. That is their opinion.
The fur market is barely alive anymore here in the US. When Coyote were worth $100.00 and Fox were $15.00, they were pretty well balanced.
I have never trapped or shot either one, but friends I have that grew up on farms/ranches here, used to make enough to fund their teenage years. At least, that is the stories I hear. The ranchers all have to keep a really close eye during calving season, as a pack of Coyote will attack a cow during birth to take the calf. Fox won’t do that.
No wonder the ranchers don’t get any sleep from late January to early March.
DG:
We’re both wrong, I just checked my Moblog -- it was April 10th, and there was snow on the ground. :D
About the coyotes, I’m not talking about crap like that. You know as well as I do there’s wanton coyote killing, like those corpses tossed over the bridge.
Ice Swimmer:
That would work for me. I don’t have swimming as a motivation.
HRH Queen Elizabeth II (or, as I like to call her, “that foreign despot on our money”) turns 90 today. Cue the inevitable fawning reportage on CBC radio. This morning, interviews with young children waiting for her to show up at some event; one of them was heard to say, “I think it [her long reign] is just such an a-mazing achievement!”
Oh, please. Her achievement was to be born first into a very rich family, and to not have any brothers. That’s it.
Well, okay, she has managed to stay sane through 60-odd years of ribbon-cuttings and reviewing parades. I don’t think I could have managed it, myself (I suspect I would have gone the Eddy the VIII route -- married some commoner and retired to a Caribbean Island for the rest of my days). So, that’s an achievement, of sorts.
Go, Liz!
I’m hoping she’ll out-live Chuck.
Although the next in line is nothing to shout about…
Why is it that They™ must comment in threads about The-Just-Now-Deceased, that TJND was an asshole?
Do They™ actually think that everyone else on the Internets has never been on the Internets?
I mean, we useta hafta go out and buy a People magazine, now we just turn on the computer and modem.
Chigau @ 224:
Because They™ are sour, nasty assholes who think their opinion is so fucking important that They™ don’t care about pissing on people who might be actually grieving for TJND.
Chigau @ 224:
Maybe They™ should just realize that *everyone* is an asshole is some way and just leave it at that.
Yeah, I know, wishful thinking.
Caine and jimb
Today I’m having more of a problem with They™ seem to think that We® don’t already know all that bad shit.
Fucking hell
WE ARE ALL ON THE INTERNET
on another topic
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=4087
this may be
the last word
Heya
chigau
I’m glad to hear
+++
Ha! Gave in to my picture taking addiction
I also finally managed to link the cam to the mobile which will open so many more possibilities
It’s snowing
or hailing
or just hard rain
in any case the cherry blossoms are taking a beating
Caine, I sent some new photos (taken this month) to your email. Did they come through? This time, sea is the common theme with the pictures. Also, the newly abundant daylight presented some challenges.
Just got them, Ice Swimmer! Rick is downloading music right now, so I’ll get them downloaded in a bit, and have them posted early Tuesday morning. Thank you!
Caine @ 232
You’re welcome! Post the as you see fit.
Presuming the rain / hail / snow is annoying you and not particularly wanted, tell the nutters at “Liberty Council” it’s transgendered [sic] precipitation, and they’ll come and shoot it for you (just tell them it’s getting into the public “restroom” / “bathroom”). This won’t of course, do any about the precipitation, but if photographers and police are on-hand, it could none the less be useful. Alternatively, landmines, flamethrowers, and — that’s for the rain, etc. — to deal with any “Liberty Council” nutters who show up, lots and lots of pirates.
Hum… looks like there is a general strike in France tomorrow (April 28), in addition to the usual May 1 demonstrations. The local bus company is warning there will be reduced service with, all of the lines I normally use either not running or sporadic(unpredicatable).
The strike is about a proposed set of “labour reforms” including making it easier to fire people(it’s very difficult, and usually(?) a lengthy process), the argument being that if it is easier to fire people, companies will be less reluctant to hire people, and so the stubbornly high unemployment rate will go down. I have no idea what else, if anything, the alleged reforms do.
It possibly is true the procedure to fire people is somewhat out-of-whack (e.g., lawyers, for both sides, are almost always involved), but whether or not the proposed reforms sensibly rebalance things is unknown to me.
Howdy.
--
Howdy.
You startled the mildly deranged penguin. She jumped, not with much force and failed to hit the ceiling, but drifted a bit, right over the spiral stairwell, and so came down much further than she went up. Bump, bump, thump, SMASH! (that was the inner door), bump, bumpity-bump, WHOMP! up against the outer door. She’s now calling out for emergency infusions of cheese, vin, cheese, MUSHROOMS!, and moar cheese. Since I just ate the cheese and MUSHROOMS! in a nice risotto, and there isn’t much vin left, this isn’t a problem. She’ll quite down in a few weeks, probably after having raided the local fromagerie out of boredom.
White-throated Sparrow.
The morons at the ‘pit are giving me clicks, again. More money for me!
What did you do to upset their delicate egos again?
Oh, wait, existing, I guess….
Nothing at all. Apparently, the morons don’t bother to read the comments in their own ‘endless’ type thread. Someone was late to the party, and utterly aghast that they missed a certain s/h/it (me) got a blog here, oh my! Anyroad, said moron posted links again, which more morons are clicking. At this rate, I’ll have a pot of coffee and a box of donuts.
A chipper chirpy.
The fruit of frustrated fuckwits.
Oh great, just what we need: Caffeine- and sugar-crazed forty-foot high flying killer rats.
Today in urbanized animals:
A hare walked* by my window and startled a finch which then jumped off its path rather quickly.
__
* when it comes to hares, what is their way of locomotion called, when they aren’t running or hopping.
lurching, I assume. like zombies. ‘cuz the hare must be dead…
Ice Swimmer @ 244:
I think walk is correct. There are a number of wild rabbits on property, and I see them walk occasionally. It’s a bit disconcerting.
A “walking” rabbit or hare is a obviously an alien decoy. Zygon, I assume.
[digression]
As of midnight tonight the medical insurance company that mishandled the Redhead’s problems will be permanently shitcanned, being replaced by Medicare alphabet soup.
Now to get the physical therapists back!!!
*Waves Kermit arms*
[/digression]
Nerd
yay!
Good news, Nerd! Congrats on winning the fight.
Caine
Can you cause a different colour background and font for your comments?
and maybe an icon on the lower right?
maybe a rattie?
cause that would be cool
—-
It’s over 20°C here.
We’re having our first gin and tonics of the season.
Chigau:
Um, it’s been years since I’ve messed around with CSS. I’ll bug PZ at some point to tell me how to do that.
Caine
I look forward to that.
….
Has Owlmirror checked-in here?
Yay for Nerd and Redhead
It’s nice here today, too, but hold your thumbs for Wednesday because then it’s “Kollegiumsausflug”: All teachers get to spend a day on a trip and the students get a day off. Nice.
BTW, shameless self promotion, but I got a post up on School of Doubt about Sex Ed and teaching consent.
Giliell @ 255:
Good post!
Autumn finally arrives around where I live.
Lofty:
Beautiful!
Um…Mount Lofty?
Caine
Yup, I took my ‘nym after my location, amongst other trivial reasons, like I’m 6’3″ and all that. It’s a small area of high rainfall hill country surrounded by much drier districts. It’s a good place to live apart from during the height of the fire season. The city is only 15 mins drive down the hill, plenty close enough.
………………………….
In other Oz news, lawmakers in Victoria, Australia finally do something to protect the clients of womens health clinics.
Lofty
Autumn on the other side of the planet is nice. Me, I want spring. Last week we had snow again. This weekend there’s supposed to be 25°C. Somebody must have cancelled Spring.
blf
I think the MDP may have infected my kids. They’re demanding huge amounts of Brie…
Giliell @ 260
We’re borrowing your spring. The weather’s actually good enough for summer now, over 15 degrees in the afternoon.
Giliell@260, Locally, the weather cannot seem to decide between proto-summer (sunny, calm, sunny, and heating-up) and proto-winter (sometimes cloudy, sometimes rain, with Mistral). Today it was both-ish, sunny with Mistral. So you could walkabout in sandals and short-sleeves, and be blown into the sea to be eaten by Kraken.
Therefore, it makes sense Brie is in demand. Obviously. It means you are sitting in a wind-sheltered, albeit not necessary Sun-sheltered, area drinking fine vin, watching the ((sometimes-)semi-)nude people on the beach being blown into the waiting arms of the Kraken, and munching. Perfectly sensible!
Spring is the season for rampant hay fever. I much prefer autumn. Winter’s not bad either, it doesn’t snow around here more than once a decade.
This night, around the time of sunset, in urban maritime dinosaurs:
I’m (not a dinosaur) sitting in a cafe by the sea and watching. Two common gulls are on a rock in the waterline and in the water, one is begging for food from the other and preening. Two great crested grebes are swimming and diving for nesting material and food. A few terns fly over the water, dive for fish and perch on railings. Two bloodbills are flying and making their naughty noises.
Ice Swimmer:
Arctic terns? Sabine’s Gulls?
My language fail, again. The birds that whistle “vittuvittuvittuvittu” are Eurasian oystercatchers.
Not to be confused with Walrus, but is another name for Carpenter.
Ice Swimmer:
No, it isn’t! I was curious about the nickname bloodbill. Now I see why! Beautiful birds. Found some sound files, too.
I’m not sure where I got bloodbill. Haematopus means bloodfoot. In Finnish they are meriharakka (= sea magpie)
Ice Swimmer:
They do have those gorgeous red bills. And those eyes!
That’s a really lovely name. I like the sound of it.
The oystercatchers will repeat their sounds rather quickly when they’re chasing intruders away, sounding as though they’re repeating the favourite profanity of the Finnish youth (literal meaning c-word, though it isn’t idiomatic to call a person “vittu”).
“Caine” is a Finnish profanity? Hum… that could explain a lot of things!
(The mildly deranged penguin is working on it. She’ll let us know what is explained after she thinks it up.)
Photographer’s woes
Yesterday we went to a bird of prey park/show. There was overall too much light from the wrong direction (almost noon, brilliant sunshine), but I adjusted the camera settings to my liking 500th shutter time, 8.0 opening. Sadly the camera is too slow so catch them in mid flight with the 180 lens, but there’s a few really nice shots. Then I changed to the Macro lens because they were carrying some owls past us. And forgot that this resets the settings…
Now I have lots of pics with way too much light…
Giliell@273, The mildly deranged penguin points out the ex-dinosaurs must have been very small. Properly sized specimens, like an T. rex, are large enough to provide sufficient shade, etc., for photography — and, it is said, you get some “really great” shots as yer being swallowed.
blf
If the MDP says so…
Giliell @ 273:
I posted your shot of the Eagle Owl, gorgeous!
Thanks!
The Owl’s the one where it worked out fine. I actually like how the strong light makes it kind of “melt” into the background.
Giliell:
It also puts a great deal of emphasis on the eye.
Hi Caine, Giliell, cicely, and everyone else out there! I finally made it here. I hope you are all well--and I look forward to hearing how everyone is doing.
While I was in Wisconsin visiting my mother, my husband download a patch to Diablo II that allows us to play the game using later versions of Windows. We have had lots of fun revisiting an old favorite. Chloe, our cat, taught me that you can move the map around with the arrow keys, which I had forgotten; she is also hitting some indeterminate keys that causes our character to say “Help me” or “Follow me.” I assume this has something to do with playing in the Battlenet with other players, something we have never done.*
Happy Friday, everyone!
*At least she isn’t deleting emails--or if she is, I don’t know about it. Yet.
Hekuni Cat
Hello.
Good night.
Hekuni Cat:
Happy Friday to you! Glad to see you here. I’ve had to unplug my keyboard every night, and stick it in a drawer, so the rats don’t constantly fuck things up.
https://needleprovocateur.wordpress.com/2016/05/06/friday-feathers-38/
Ok, they’ve now established your are susceptible and capable of being trained. Soon they will have you running a maze. Actually, they’ll probably have you build the maze first… have you recently had the urge to do anything with, say, plastic or paint?
Blf:
Smothering rats has come to mind.
Right. You’ll find yerself building a bog boxy thing with many walls, with the plan being to lure the rats instead, close it up, and collapse it. The piece is entitled “aMazed rats”, and you’ll find yerself wandering all through it. Don’t worry, whilst it might be closed up at times, it won’t collapse. Unless you don’t find the treat, that is… which, for the first few times, will probably always be by the exit. I suspect that as you learn to associate the treat with the exit, the distance — and complexity — of getting from one to the other will increase.
Hekuni Cat!
*pouncehug*
So glad to hear of you.
blf
Is this specimen more to the MDP’s liking?
+++
Bonus over cute
Those two are living under a tree root next to a small brook in the Graden/Dino Park/Water Playground we visited today. 1m behind them people were having a picnic, children were splashing along 30 cm in front of them, but they hardly minded. And I don’t think anybody but us saw them.
Giliell:
Grabbed and posted. Adorable.
Lilacs are blooming.
Giliell@286, An early-model coconut opener! The problem with those early models is the vision and smell weren’t so great, so they tended to “open” anything roundish and roughly coconut-sized. Hence, feeding them was a real problem, as they would frequently bite off the dinoherder’s head by mistake.
The mildly deranged penguin was, surprisingly, not involved, Forklift driver survives eight-hour ordeal by cheese.
Must have been either British Industrial Cheddar, or K. Velveta “cheese food”.
‘Crude, but rarely nasty’: The jokes Europeans tell about their neighbours:
That’S totally unfair. We also import delicious food and competent footballers from Turkey
The reason Estonians think Finns do a lot of binge drinking is a) it’s true and b) they sell us cheap booze.
Our state’s last remaining coal fired power plant is being wound down as I type this. Hopefully the locality of the coal plant (Port Augusta) will host Australia’s first solar storage power plant, if the right buttons are pressed at the next federal election on 2 July.
And I would never have guessed that Pee Wees were a public safety concern.
Sea gulls are a somewhat similar problem in Helsinki. The Market Square is on a quay and the gulls have learned to steal ice cream etc. In my opinion gulls are easy to defeat, though: Keep your ice cream cone close to your chest when you’re not actively licking it, also eating by a tree or a pole will make it difficult for the gulls to do their aerial maneuvers.
Monday Mercurial #38.
The mildly deranged penguin uses a minor variant of this. She gets one of those balloons-on-stick (or -a-string), attaches a WW I-style sea-mine (the spherical things with lots of knobs sticking out), and happily eats her ice cream, cheese, cheese, cheese-flavored ice cream, and moar cheese, whilst waddling about. Any gulls, inquisitive children, walruses, and other nuisances get too close, they touch one of the knob-detonators, and BOOM! No more gull or other nuisance.
It does, however, tend to melt your ice cream, and soot-covered cheese leaves something to be desired.
We have the same problem on the shores of the Great Lakes, with Lake gulls.
They fill the parking lots of the grocery stores even a couple of miles “inland”. If they were any more aggressive, I would buy el-cheapo white bread and stuff it with Cheese Food™ as a diversion. That would tie up their intestinal tracts for days.
I suspect the answer to distressing dinosaurs might be Dwarf Bread.
Hmph. Dwarf Bread isn’t an answer to distressing dinosaurs; Dwarf Bread is a method for distressing dinosaurs.
Apparently, May is “International Masturbation Month”, Go ahead, touch yourself: eight things to know for masturbation month.
Quickly dropping off this *big pile of hugs*…and this NSFW thing. (Sex, science, and a malachite stalactite.)
--
Window Garden Update:
Gave one third of the plants to my mom last week. Everything has been replanted at least once to a bigger pot. Almost all the available and not really available* space is in use, it is questionable if there’s room to replant lovages, which will probably be the next to outgrow their pots (ETA in 2 -- 4 weeks). There are now by the window:
28 square 75 mm plastic pots
2 round 110 mm terracotta pots
4 round 120 mm plastic pots
1 round 140 mm self-watering plastic pot
2 square 160 mm self-watering plastic pots
3 round 170 mm self-watering plastic pots
2 rectangular 125x250 mm ceramic pots/boxes
Chives, parsley and basil can soon be harvested in limited amounts. Mint and lemon balm have had a slow start (both are perennials and mint seeds are almost like dust, so it’s to be expected). Dill has needed watering every day on sunny days lately.
__
* = A few pots sit in front of the ventilation windows. Luckily there’s a separate fresh-air vent.
Ice Swimmer
Every single year I horribly overplant the balcony. Just enough space for two chairs and longdrinks.
Though, no more planting now, we might buy a house soon.
*Paniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccccccccccccccccccccc*
Giliell @ 306
Best of luck on finding a good house with reasonable price.
With a yard the planting madness can reach another level 8-).
Ice Swimmer
Well, we’ve found a house. I’ll visit it again on Tuesday with an architect and the salesman and if we can all agree we’ll buy it.
Did I mention PANIC???
The plantable yard isn’t too big, fortunately, because my time is very limited.
It sounds like the window- and balcony-gardeners are trying to do essentially what Unseen University’s wizards do, and plant a garden in a small extra dimension tacked onto the window. But, yer forgetting one thing… that extra dimension. Just stuffing more and more planets into the window / onto the balcony won’t create the needed dimension, assuming you don’t stuff so much that you create a black hole.
Giliell @ 308
You may have slipped out the word panic. Telling a German to keep cool and to keep her eyes open in a situation having to do with selling and buying would be unnecessary according to national stereotypes held here, so I’m not doing it 8-).
Seriously, you will know the best.
blf @ 309
Maybe I should consult a local version of Bloody Stupid Johnson about multidimensional structures.
Giliell:
Oh, it’s a big step, so yeah, scary. But EXCITING, too! As for the garden, what about getting the girls interested? They could do all that stuff.
Giliell -- good luck with the house.
———--
I love that there’s somewhere on here to showcase glorious art, and the process of craftsmanship. A few years back, I went to Venice and bought a folletto-type mask from the most gorgeous little shop. It smelt of spiced wax, and the business was run by two brothers who took turns running the shop and making masks in the workshop. Between my really basic faltering Italian and the brother’s slightly better grasp of English, he managed to explain a bit about the crafting process as he signed the back of the mask for me, and also told me that I could watch a video on their website showing them at work. Hopefully this link will get you to the English language version of their website, and the video I think you might enjoy watching in particular is the first one in the row, entitled “How we create masks” -- http://www.mascarer.com/en/home.html#video
Caine
Oh they absolutely will. Part of my planting motifs is to show them how things grow. We had little radishes, tomatoes, bell peppers… Last year we planted three potatoes in a pot and then counted the harvest (28).
And I absolutely love to grow things.
I’m still keeping myself from making concrete plans because it’s not ours yet, right?
Thanks, everyone
Concrete grows?
Yah, but not in a pretty way. Without some serious concriculture, things can really get ugly in a concrete garden.
The U.S. Embassy in Helsinki have neglected trimming their concrete and steel fence so it’s grown quite tall.
Makes sense. Their are reindeer outside. Also, Scandinavians. One will drink you dry. The other will eat you afterwards, probably after soaking you in lye, being unable to distinguish a fish from a fool.
“Thier are…”? Geesh. “There are…”
TW for transphobic violence
The first trans woman has been shot to death in a restroom by a cs woman
Tell me again who’s a danger here and who needs protection
SORRY
Apparently the story above is fake. Please delete, Caine.
I’ve never been more glad.
What asshole does such a thing.
Giliell @ 320:
Fuck. No, no, no, no.
Giliell, it’s gone. I am so relieved, but what kind of fucking asshole does such a thing? Goddamn.
Even worse, I read the comments on the fake story. Not pretty.
I just can’t get over this sentence:
Seriously? A warship. Snipers. Movie Festival. Something’s not right there.
From this article.
Palate cleanser: Baby snowleopard webcam
So, Caine.
How did the thing with the neurodoc go?
Chigau:
Okay. I lost my neurodoc though, he’s retiring. Got lectured about my weight.
Caine
I’d instantly send you a few pounds if possible
Giliell, I wish you could! I’m maintaining at 99 lbs right now, but if I can’t pull my weight up, I’ll end up in hospital. I have all this nasty protein stuff I have to drink every day.
Urgh, nasty protein stuff is nasty protein stuff, but, that’s usually what I drink for losing weight?
+++
Hmmm
Architect put the house at a much lower price than it is currently advertised. Mr. will see about it tomorrow* and then the ball’s in the seller’s court.
Either the architect will help us save a lot of money or he’ll keep us from making an expensive mistake. Either way money well spent.
Giliell:
Uh oh. Maybe neither one of us should be drinking the stuff. The stuff I have is supposed to build muscle mass, yada, yada, yada. It makes me feel so full I don’t want to eat, so I don’t know if I’ll keep up with it.
That works. Hopefully, you’ll save money and have a house.
Caine
That would be my preferred outcome as well
Yeah, that’s why it’s often used in weight reduction plans…
I’m not currently drinking any, I’ve got so much on my plate with my job, I have no time to worry about my weight. And if I had some energy to spare I’d take up exercising again, not dieting.
Caine
Too bad about your doctor, that happens when you get old.
.
Eat something.
Maybe the rats will share some Nutella.
Chigau @ 334:
Yeah, it will be strange not seeing him anymore, I’ve been seeing him since the late ’90s. I had thought he’d retire long before this though, so lucky enough for me.
I am eating! I eat all the time. And I don’t like nutella.
It sucks when your specialists retire. Sorry to hear that. :(
--
My blag attracted a few “all hetero sex is rape” types. I thought MacKinnonites went extinct? Anyway, I didn’t let the comments through, but they gave me a good chuckle in the same way someone ranting about chem trails gives me a good chuckle.
tsk
I’m surprised the rats have anything to do with you ;)
Well, more for them.
Siobhan:
Oh FFS, really? I didn’t think we had any of those left.
Neither did I. It’s like “chem trail conspiracy” level of thinking. I was kind of gobsmacked.
The mildly deranged penguin points out eating nutella first assaults your taste buds and then leaves a disgusting chemtrail through your digestive system.
I think she’s being too tolerant of the stuff.
The world’s longest pizza — in pictures: “The world’s longest pizza was made in Naples and is 1.8km long. It took 250 pizza makers six hours and 11 minutes. They used 2,000kg of flour, 1,600kg of tomato sauce, 2,000kg of mozzarella cheese, 200 litres of oil and 30kg of basil. The pizza made it into the Guinness World Records, and was donated to the needy”.
I’m intrigued by the oven, which is mounted on a cart and obviously slowly moves along that 1.8km ribbon-of-pizza, baking it and leaving behind a 1.8km ribbon-of-baked-pizza. There were apparently five such motorized, custom-made, wood-burning ovens used.
Would a mile of pizza help Caine’s weight problem? (Does not contain nutella.)
Holy shit, that’s a lot of pizza. I wouldn’t be able to eat a mile of pizza, but if I could, yes, I expect I’d weigh much more. Before I burst.
Caine,
Sorry to hear about the doctor retiring. Hoping you’ll find a new good one.
I’m certainly no doctor, but maybe the protein drink contains nutrition that your digestive system can absorb better than from regular food, so you feel more full especially if you’ve been undernourished (maybe due to not digesting your food fully among other reasons) and now the level of stuff in your blood is higher than what your body is used to. Just a guess.
—
A cute cucumber.
Ice Swimmer:
You could be right, and I just started the protein powder, so I’ll give it a chance. I think perhaps drinking it in the morning would be best.
I saw an Oriole today! They’re early, I don’t have oranges yet.
About eating:
if I eat something light (fruit or cereal or yoghurt) at breakfast (~7AM), I am ravenous by 10AM.
.
if I eat a big bacon-eggs-toast-hashbrowns breakfast, I won’t want to eat until supper-time or possibly breakfast next day.
.
If I have tea and internet for breakfast, I can ignore the tummy-rumble until I start to shake.
.
Caine
If I were trying to gain weight, I’d have the protein shake at bed-time.
Have the forty-foot high killer rats take turns jumping up-and-down on you. A sortof ramrod, squeezing the pizza and shoving it further down, leaving room for more.
Again, forty-foot high killer rats to the rescue! Yer accustomed to being stomped, and possibly chewed, into small bits and then — the important point — reassembling afterwards. (Do you come in numbered parts or just use a “Try a bigger hammer” approach?)
Chigau:
I’m supposed to drink it twice a day, so I’m going for morning (after tea), and before bed. I am thinning it out a bit with chocolate milk, it’s so damn thick it’s hard to drink. I suppose it’s working, my weight has been very stable so far, which is good.
Wish us luck, we made a bid on the house.
Giliell:
GOOD LUCK!
Giliell
Good luck.
Good luck Gilliell.
My doctor is retiring the end of July. There’s a younger doctor in his practice now, so I’ll try her out.
Hmm, my kids’ paediatricians are retiring. One is already retired, I suppose the other one will retire soon after patients adapted to the young folks who carry on…
I expect my GPs to retire within a few years as well. No totally surprising when they’ve been your GP since your were 5…
Good luck, Giliell!
A lot of doctors have been born in the 1940s, right?
WE got it we got it we got it!!!
I’m totally giddy right now, adrenaline flowing at high speed
Giliell, woohoo, congratulations! That’s great news. Boy, are you going to be busy.
Congratulations Giliell.
It took a while for it to sink in after we bought our house that we didn’t have to worry about our security deposit. We could make the house livable for us.
Thanks
Oh yes, we’ll be busy, busy, busy.
The house is old-ish (1960) with no major renovations having been done since. But we kind of liked it that way because it means we can now renovate to our liking.
Giliell:
When are you going to move? Summer holidays?
I have no idea
The contracts need to be finalized, we need to do some renovation, have some major things done by others (new roof, new insulation, new heating) and I guess we’ll have to pay rent here until September anyway
We went for a dinosaur watching walk today, here:
https://natureedmonton.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/kennedale-wetland-at-hermitage-park/
in two hours of walking in the rain at 4°C we saw (larger to smaller):
great blue heron (1), pelican (6), canada geese (alot), mallards (ditto), scaup (~dozen), grebe (2 kinds, maybe 2 pair each), alot of other ducky things and uncounted lbb’s.
…
and manymany heard but not seen birds.
and a muskrat and a coyote.
I had not even heard of that Kennedale place.
I am very proud (in that weird I’m not really much involved kind of ‘proud’) of my city.
No penguins? The females have all migrated by now, leaving the stupid males to sit on eggs during the Antarctic winter whilst the females have a grand time in the tropics. Maybe you didn’t have any cheese on you?
No penguins.
I did have some tea and Girl Guide cookies.
Hi.
Girl has matriculated.
BA in Psychology, minors in Women’s and Gender Studies, Sociology and Statistics, and already has a job working for a women’s violence center.
Had both sets of relatives down (or up) from Maine and Florida, and on Saturday night had 25 people partying in the house. I have never had that many people in my house before.
——--
Caine:
No second email from the person we discussed. Still not sure if it is real, or a very well-researched con.
Ogvorbis:
Congratulations to her, that’s impressive!
I don’t know that I’d let 25 people into my house. That’s a lot of socializing.
Given no follow up, it’s hard to say, but I’d be damn wary.
@giliell
Belated congratulations on the acquisition!
@chigau
Sounds like a great place to walk -- more cities need to go with that water treatment mode (I understand it is a “polishing” wetland?)
Myself, I’d be after the lbb-type dinos (just to try to sort ’em out, you know), more than the web/lobed-footed kind. I like a challenge, though.
(*frowny face*) Now I want Girl Guide cookies…
Dr Henry Heimlich uses Heimlich manoeuvre [in an emergency situation] for first time at 96: “Surgeon employs anti-choking technique that bears his name to dislodge hamburger from woman’s airway in retirement home”.
Spanish archaeologists discover cave art to rival country’s best: “Paleolithic-era drawings found in Axturra cave are in ‘Champions League’ of cave art sites, team leader says”.
(Due to the continuing and increasingly-frustrating comment problems at FtB I am not excerpting the article, that’s just asking for FtB to massively increase my already heightened levels of annoyance and frustration.)
US reports first case of bacteria resistant to antibiotic of last resort: “‘It is the end of the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently,’ says Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after superbug infects Pennsylvania woman”.
The title is a bit misleading, this is not the first ever case of a “multidrug-resistant superbug that no antibiotic can fight” seen, but the first in the States.
I have discovered a local dating app for queer women called Wing Ma’am. Haven’t stopped giggling since.
Siobhan:
Oh, well played.
Blf:
Raw Story had a couple of articles about this. People have been warned and warned, and warned, for fucking years. They just don’t want to listen, and too many people have continued prescribing antibiotics for everything and nothing. We’re going to run smack into a very bad epidemic.
Pair of glasses left on US gallery floor mistaken for art: “Teenager leaves spectacles on floor of San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art as a prank, leading some to think they were an exhibit”.
A hilarious reader’s comment, “I’m in awe at the shear spectacle.”
Sea sponge the size of a minivan discovered in ocean depths off Hawaii: “Researchers believe the creature found by scientists 2,100m below the surface of the ocean is the largest of its kind ever documented”.
Here’s the bit which perhaps even more interesting, “[Christopher Kelley, program biologist at the NOAA’s Hawaii undersea research lab,] said they took samples of a sponge of the same species they found the day before the larger one and sent them to the world’s top experts, and no one could identify what genus the sponge belongs to.”
And “According to scientists, some of the large sponges found in more shallow waters have been estimated to be over 2,300 years old, leading researchers to wonder how old some of these deep-sea organisms that have never been encountered can become.”
At that ago, I suppose you do tend to forget where you left your glasses.
s/ago/age/Yep, and to make matters worse patients help by not taking their antibiotics to the end.
YES. In addition — and this is particularly true in both the States and Big China — is the essentially indiscriminate inclusion of antibiotics in farmed animal feed.
CN: description of anti-trans violence
.
.
.
Transgender man killed in Vermont
Saad @ 377:
Christ. I’ve been seeing one to three stories like this every. single. week. Violence against transgender people was already insanely high, now it’s getting worse, and still, these moronic politicians refuse to face reality.
Apropos of nothing much, one of the weekly items of advertising fumpf which FUMPFED! through the mailslot today was a glossy multipage (24 pages) themed offer from one of the major French (hyper-)market chains. So what? That happens every week.
It was the theme which caught my eye: Ramadan, the Islamic holy month (which starts on 6-June this year). Not cheesy or insulting, but a serious set of offers presumably of interest to those who observe Ramadan, or are, or are interested in, cultural Islam.
Assorted specialist cooking and serving utensils, specials on halal foods (from around the globe), some nutritional advice, various music CDs (mostly Arabic as far as I could tell, that plus a mobile phone related offer seemed to be the only entries which equated Muslim with Arab, and even then it is borderline), and so on. And I must admit, some of the foods and equipment looking tempting.
Well done !
(I do not know if this is a first, I simply have no recollection of ever seeing anything like it before.)
blf @379 reminds me, one of the local supermarkets, which has a large Hispanic and Asian clientele, recently started selling Halal meats. The first in northern Lake County (there are some near Lake-Cook Road, about 20 miles south).
There are a number of butchers in the village selling halal meats. In one spot there are three in a row, two of which (as far as I know) only sell halal meats. The third one is perhaps the biggest in the village, and seems to specialize in industrial-sized offers for large families.
@377: Why do people do this? I know, that’s probably an insanely stupid question, but I just can’t fathom why anyone would think beating someone to death because they are trans is a good idea. Why can’t they just avoid trans people if it bothers them so much?
@372: By Duchamp’s shovel, it was art.
Pluto’s perplexing polygonal patterns caused by convection, scientists suggest (there is an amazing image at the link):
It is indeed caused by convection, but the interior heat source is the Soup Dragon.
Oldest handwritten documents in UK unearthed in City dig (“City” means “City of London” which is the financial centre and amongst the oldest inhabited parts of London):
blf @ 385
The early writings are fascinating. Furthermore it’s harder idealize the past when reading about ancient deadbeats*.
__
* = Of course, we can’t know for sure was the reason for nonpayment inability or unwillingness.
Dagger in Tutankhamun’s tomb was made with iron from a meteorite:
Further on the article discusses how the ancient Egyptians were clearly aware iron could fall from the sky.
There is one possibly weird bit near the end, however:
That initially struck me as unlikely: Whilst the outer layer of a meteorite does heat up as it enters the atmosphere, the bulk of the meteorite is still extremely cold — not surprising, it’s just spent eons zipping around in in the vacuum of space at only a few degrees Kelvin. Upshot is you can pick up a freshly-landed small meteorite almost immediately, then then drop it in a hurry as it’s so cold.
However, as I was writing the above it then struck me the critical word there is “small”. Whilst the point is also true for a “big” meteorite (except it’s too heavy to pick up), the force of the landing just might be sufficient to fuse sand into glass?
Bumblebee’s electric field sensor identified:
I have no idea what is meant by “speed of sound particles”.
Water inside moon mostly from asteroids, study suggests:
It’s actually all the cheese inside the Massive Orbit Cheese Vault (acronym MOON due to poor inscribing on clay tables). And, the mildly deranged penguin points out, the one currently parked above the Earth is nowhere nears four billion years old. Even MOON Mark I is not that old. albeit the cheese inside it is now probably almost ripe. Certainly aged.
We signed the contract for the house today.
I guess I count as “grown up” now
So you’ve finally had “the rats-in-puppets and the electric-flower-detectors” talk then?
Congratulations, Giliell!
The problem with owning a house, though, is that you can’t call the landlord when something breaks. OTOH, if you want to keep small dogs and paint the spare bedroom bright green, no one can tell you you can’t do so.
Congrats, Giliell, and enjoy your first visit to the DIY store. A whole house as a canvas…
Congratulations Giliell. It will take a little while to make it your home instead of your house. Have a fun time getting it there.
Dianne
The roof here has been periodically leaky for a year and a half now. Today the 5th attempt will be made to fix it. Believe me, being able to take care of that stuff myself is a bright line.
I tend towards a reptile. I have a bunch of allergies…
Dogs are better than reptiles when used as a paint roller.
I’ve been at 101 lbs for a week, up from a very scary 96 lbs. Able to wear a size 1 now, feeling much better, more energetic. Now, to put on 9 more pounds.
Congratulations to Giliell!
Caine, it’s great to hear there’s more of You again!
Caine, congrats on the added poundage. Modern science has discovered quite a bit in the last several years about the complexities of weight gain and loss. Insulin plays a huge role. I am gradually losing my abundant excess avoirdupois, based on good science. Now all we need is a good method of transferring it from we who have too much to you who have too little.
Yesterday the dirty washing basket was full to the brim with junior’s used underwear. I will be writing an essay on the subject titled A Month of Undies.
Caine: more pastry scraps for the ratties?
Ice Swimmer:
:D Thanks.
Morgan:
I’m glad to hear! Hopefully, you’re feeling better, too. It’s really nice to feel, well, going toward normal (for me). On either side of the weight line, it’s easy to become so anxious about it that you end up your own worst enemy.
Lofty:
You’re always welcome to guest write here.*
I’m afraid not. I’ll have to keep hogging everything for a while yet.
*Which reminds me -- next week, I’ll be posting a plea for new bloggers, but it won’t hurt to mention it here. We’re especially looking for people of colour, women, and GLBTQ peoples, but everyone is welcome to apply. Group blogs are great, you just need one person who is designated the head of the whole shebang.
send an email to ftbapplications@googlegroups.com, in which you give us this information:
Name
Contact email
Do you want your email public?
Twitter account, if any
Link for donations, if any
Links to your current blog, any biographical material, or best examples of your writing in comments or forums or other media
Why do you want to write for us?
Excavating Underwear in Far and Distant Laundries, or The 30 Days of Soiled.
Lofty #401
Can Junior reach the buttons on the washing machine?
chigau, after 32 years it is extremely obvious that it’s safer to keep him well away from the washing machine. He has various university degrees but practical he is not. Anyway, why should I let the poor washing machine be tortured? It’s 10 years older than him, built in the days when dodgy electronics had no place in a home laundry. I would miss it’s battered visage severely if I let junior choke it to death with his entire grubby wardrobe at once.
Muhammad Ali has died
: (
Dave Swarbrick (Swarb) has died.
Lofty@405, He sounds very practical in that he seems to understand the washing machine is for clothes and not, say, the cat. (The mildly deranged penguin is not so sure, she says a wash in the machine is not only quite invigorating, but that for cats, it’s a great way of freshening them up for the next trebuchet-assisted flying lesson.)
Universe is expanding up to 9% faster than we thought, say scientists:
The mildly deranged penguin maintains this is proof of the evil of peas: Even the Universe doesn’t like them, and is running away, faster and faster…
blf, junior does know the Proper Uses Of a Cat, e.g. tootsie warmer, tummy massager etc. In any case, The Spook does not fly as the impact of him accidentally landing would wreck the planet. Little Miss Behaving on the other hand, needs no help to orbit the globe, as she is a ticketed LEO (low earth orbit) cat. She is quite capable of orbiting the room at head height without external assistance.
Lofty
Mr learned doing the laundry at almost 40. Now it’s almost exclusively his domain.
+++
I’m having trouble commenting. Unless I hit “post” immediately after a page loads I get a “Your request timed out” message
Giliell:
Yeah, it still hasn’t been fixed. You can see it’s going to happen when you click ‘preview’. What I do is type a couple letters, hit preview again, delete the extra letters, hit preview, then post.
Pain the effing ass, I know.
Congrats on the house Giliell. :)
On time outs, when I get the message, I hit the back button and then post. On the off chance of the browser eating it I copy it first ready to paste into a new comment box.
An extremely long timeout, with an even more convoluted recovery process, X-rays reveal 1,300-year-old writings inside later bookbindings:
Hikers on Caribbean island of Montserrat find ancient stone carvings:
Eh? Radiocarbon dating — of rocks? I (and many of the commentators at the site) may be missing something here, but something seems a bit confused…
Window garden update:
Since the last update, I’ve given some herbs to my aunt to make room for re-potting.
Everything from 75 mm pots has been moved to bigger pots, even the mint and lemon balm, which have been slow to grow. I’ve started using my own dill, chives, parsley and basil in my cooking.
Some bugs have been flying around but no visible animals feeding from the herbs. All available and a bit more space still in use. There are now by the window:
6 round 110 mm terracotta pots
4 round 120 mm plastic pots
3 round 140 mm self-watering plastic pot
4 square 160 mm self-watering plastic pots
3 round 170 mm self-watering plastic pots
1 round 200 mm self-watering plastic pot
3 rectangular 125×250 mm ceramic pots/boxes
Next I’m re-potting all the dill into one big pot. It would have probably been better to sow a little in a in big pot in the first place and sow some more gradually. Live and learn.
Ah, the famous Invisibilia herbivore. Very cunning, in that it replaces the consumed herbs with herbal-looking guano, which frightens off most other critters whilst making it look like a delicious crop of herbs is brewing. Rarely seen. (In fact, the type specimen hasn’t been seen for years.)
Fortunately, I. herbivore‘s guano isn’t toxic, but it is so disgusting it it thought to be the main ingredient in Coca-Cola,
BudweiserAmerican, and Cheese Whiz. Prices are rapidly falling on the Chicago Guano Exchange, mostly due to an excessive amount of cheaper, fouler, and toxic Politician Open Mouth Emitted Shite.But Ice Swimmer, I would hope you are indeed a visible animal.
Lofty @ 419
Yes, this true, my father wasn’t a glassmith, so I’m not invisible or transparent.