What do you call the last half of the last half? Which quarter is that?

That's the fourth quarter, not the fourth fourth.

That looks like a really fucked up recipe.:lol2:

Oh, man. We finally got good toilet paper back, but we're still going through the COVID-quality paper towels. They are awful.

I saw what you did there.

You can put a link in the other thread to this one. I've gotten a few twofers that way.

It's okay. The tagline had a damn typo in it anyway.

I added raw chicken juice to the list. mmm-mmmmmhhhh

*Sigh*... There are bigger problems in the world right now, I know. But when everything is crazy and you're already on the brink all the time, sometimes the unexpected little things hit way harder than they should.

My stupid gym is going through Chapter 11, and is closing my location for good. Memberships are a minimum of one year, and they are issuing no refunds during the closure, so they still have all our money--which means they were in such a precarious financial position that three months of no new memberships was enough to put them under. Irresponsible fuckers. Of course, since a couple of their locations will theoretically re-open, they think I can just drive 20 miles south and won't be issuing any refunds for permanent closures, either.

And it's not about the money, anyway. I paid up front to get the discount, so the money's already long gone, budget-wise, and won't be a continuing drain month-to-month. It's the physical location that was key: right across the highway from my kids' school, no excuse for skipping a workout immediately after dropping them off in the mornings. The summers were a wash, but 9 months out of the year I was going 3-4 times a week and doing really well with my overall joint strength, which needs constant maintenance just to function normally. Three months into COVID, I can already feel my knees starting to fuck up again, even though I'm taking morning walks around the neighborhood, because stiff legs on hard pavement don't work out the right stabilization muscles. I can do the "right" physical-therapy approved exercises at home with stretchy bands and the like, but I don't want to. That was the whole point of the gym, to shoehorn it into my routine so I couldn't look across the room at the stretchy bands from my nice comfy chair and say "fuck it." I had a good thing going, and now I have to come up with a new plan, and it sucks.

My one glimmer of hope is that the building itself is super-specialized, including a long skinny lap pool, and maybe a new gym will take the space. I'd gladly pay double membership if it means I can get my location back if/when the schools re-open--which realistically isn't going to happen by August anyway. Texas is about to hit its real surge, and all the things that say they're re-opening in July are going to stay closed when reality comes knocking. The permanent nature of my gym's closure won't even really be a thing that matters for the rest of 2020, at least, so I was going to have to come up with a new plan regardless. I'm just tired, and mildly irritated. That's all.

That's a real suck

Rush Limbaugh is still on the radio.

Minifobette's laptop up and died, halfway through the second day of (distance learning) school.

So I rushed to set her up on my old laptop, and 30 minutes into her next class, the speakers stopped working--prompting me to remember why exactly it was that I got a new laptop for myself way back when. >:(

So now she's on my current laptop, which means I can't do the work I'm supposed to be doing, either now or indefinitely into the future, until we get hers fixed/replaced.

That's very frustrating. I wish I could help.

Does your old laptop have Bluetooth? If so, you may be able to play it through Bluetooth headphones, speakers (Amazon Echo devices do Bluetooth connections too); or, even your smartphone speaker by linking the phone to the old laptop. It's easy to forget about built-in Bluetooth capability if you're always using Wi-Fi.

I'll have to give that a shot--I'm not actually certain whether it's the speakers themselves or the sound card that's dodgy, but she does have Bluetooth headphones that she uses regularly.

Further troubleshooting on her own laptop has revealed that the problem is her DC power jack. It's apparently become damaged inside from aggressively plugging and unplugging it all the time--we can get it to charge and power up, but only if the cord stays in one exact, precarious position. The new part is supposed to get here Thursday, and meanwhile we've got it fully charged and turned off so she can get as far as possible through the day tomorrow.

I don't think this qualifies as my bum being scorched or my groove being stoned, or whatever the phrases are, so I'll have to content myself with being mildly irritated.

I've lost count of the number of times I have recently received a phone call supposedly from Amazon's security department.

It's the usual spiel with the caller announcing his or her name followed by a kind enquiry as to my state of health and general well being.

In a moment of annoyance the phrase 'bunch of crooks' passed my lips.

There may also have been a rather immoderate qualifying adjective before those few words.

Gentle reader, I will spare you the gruesome details. ;)

We all have inquiring minds please enlighten us.

My mother-in-law received a chunk of bamboo from China, some kind of address scheme... annoying. We have enough Chinese invasive species without this kind of nonsense.

Griff, I don't understand.... She randomly got mailed some bamboo? From China? For what purpose?

And to her or her business?

"Gentle reader", pffft.

Coarse busybodies want to know too.

Her home address which is her business address. There was a weird seed mailing thing from China. This may be the next iteration? The return address was an American address for Chinese shipping. I should have taken down the info. We told her to burn it.

Everything I've read indicates it's a mild form of identity theft--they ship something to your address so that you can be a "verified purchase" from their company, and then they leave a fake positive review for their company from your account. Best to change your Amazon password.

Thanks for that. I’ll pass that on to Lil’ Pete who walks Gramma through all technology issues.

Yes, way back when the inch was still very inchy I took a master gardener course via Cornell Cooperative Extension. During one of the modules they went over how US soybeans are a hella important crop and we are the only country that doesn't have soybean rust. Apparently DHS makes it their business to be sure eco terrorists don't try to bring nasty plant shit into the US. That was about 2004 0r 2005,

oh! someone mentioned that on facebook that they got unsolicited seeds from China, but they were something else. Thanks for the explanation.

I hit a nest of ground wasps with the brush hog today. Bad idea.

Yeah, sounds like a bad idea. An underground nest usually calls for napalm or liquid nitrogen.

Or a nice moderate county in a non-adjacent state.

I read squid nitrogen....

(I'm tired and chilling...... that's what the ghost of my stroke does in such circs....) :D

I got moles.

No, in the yard. How do you get rid of these?

well, i know one way to flush out a mole, at least:

Attachment 71216

Caddyshack is a good training film.

Border Collie

Best wasp/yellow jacket/hornet killer made. Mix 50:50 with water, put in a pump sprayer and hose them down. They drop like, well, flies. Actually they drop like small rocks that can no longer fly. Fewer toxic. Unless you are a Shitty bee-wanna be.



http://www.masonrydepotny.com/wp-con...RAL-ORANGE.jpg

Sorry about the size.

That's what she said.

Good tip though, I've also been told vegetable oil.

Ya might try moth balls in the tunnels...

Ya might try gasoline in the tunnels...

Ya might try a product called Critter Ridder...Might work on moles.



ETA: Nice to see you back, btw.

My favorite daily logic problem site is down. I suspect it won't be coming back. earlier in the year the number of daily puzzles was reduced to a fraction of its former self :( Guess I need to get a job.....

Like maybe building a for profit puzzle site...

Moles take some patience, but you can follow their progress across turf and such. A shovel stuck in their path will stop them and then bring 'em up.
Water will bring 'em easier than it will gophers.
Throw 'em in a bucket and toss in a nasty neighbor's place.
Dogs and cats only take one bite for some reason.

It's back :D

yay!


.... wait.. maybe you should try to solve the question as to why it was down. y'know, for extra credit.

I did :) (try that is) ;)

To the topic: Same Ole Cwap