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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Open Thread

Sunday Open Thread

by Betty Cracker|  April 6, 201410:34 am| 49 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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This old tub has been moored just north of the Tampa shrimp docks for ages:

peggy_p

I pass by her on the way back and forth to town sometimes. If they ever move her, I’ll miss her.

A community college in the Bohemian section of town has had a snail invasion:

snails

I wonder what the garden chat folks would make of these gastropods!

What are y’all up to today? I’ll probably continue MattressQuest 2014 (my search for new bedding) and perhaps grill something later and watch the ballgame. It’s a beautiful day.

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Previous Post: « Sunday Garden Chat: Spring Awakening
Next Post: West Coast Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Do You Know These Plants? »

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    Bob

    April 6, 2014 at 10:47 am

    Public art in KCMO http://oldenburgvanbruggen.com/largescaleprojects/shuttlecocks-01.htm

    Them snails better watch out.

  2. 2.

    Betty

    April 6, 2014 at 10:57 am

    With the price of scrap metal these days, I would be surprised if the tub stayed there much longer. We have had an invasion of African snails here in the Caribbean – which are enormous by my standards – but don’t quite match up to your specimens!

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    April 6, 2014 at 11:00 am

    Fast search brings up at least two mattress warehouse outlets in Tampa:

                           #1 – #2

  4. 4.

    Mike in NC

    April 6, 2014 at 11:01 am

    We have good friends from NoVA who relocated to Tampa, so we go down every year to visit. Tarpon Springs, Ybor City, the SS American Victory, etc. Lots to see and do, and plenty of excellent restaurants.

  5. 5.

    the Conster

    April 6, 2014 at 11:02 am

    Meant to post this on Friday, but in the good news department rode the train into Boston with 4 young suit clad white men – I think graduate students – going to some kind of political conference at the State House. They were chatting, and were all progressives. Heard Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren’s name come up a couple of times as in “he’s no Elizabeth Warren”, and one of them – the wicked smaht one – wants to be an organizer and is going to be working for Battleground Texas this summer – thinks Texas can be flipped. Oh, the optimism of youth! but it made my day.

  6. 6.

    Betty Cracker

    April 6, 2014 at 11:13 am

    @Mike in NC: Yeah, Tampa is a fun town if you know where to go. I live out in the boonies, but it is my closest urban area. I lived there for years.

  7. 7.

    ranchandsyrup

    April 6, 2014 at 11:14 am

    We got one of the off brand tempurpedic ones at Costco a while back and have been really happy.

    Heading to the dog beach this morning and a bike ride this afternoon.

  8. 8.

    IowaOldLady

    April 6, 2014 at 11:17 am

    For the first time this year, we walked outside instead of in the mall. And birds are rioting outside my study window. It’s too early to garden, but spring may come after all.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    April 6, 2014 at 11:20 am

    @NotMax: Thanks!

    @ranchandsyrup: And thanks for reminding me about Costco. I checked there once, but not thoroughly and not when I was in serious buy mode, so it’s worth checking again. Plus I can get more cheap wine!

  10. 10.

    raven

    April 6, 2014 at 11:25 am

    The princess lost her iPhone and either location services was turned off, it ran out of juice or someone has it.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    April 6, 2014 at 11:27 am

    @raven: Aw crap! If you have that Find My iPhone app, a thief shouldn’t be able to turn it off unless they have your Apple ID. We’ve recovered my careless kiddo’s iPhone that way at least half a dozen times (not from thieves, from misplacement).

  12. 12.

    TOP123

    April 6, 2014 at 11:31 am

    Sleep on the floor! I started in Asia, have continued since; it takes getting used to, but I’m down to a thin feather duvet and blanket–somewhere between Japan and Korea on the ouch-that’s-hard scale. Feels great once you’re a convert, cheap as chips, and, depending on the size of Château Cracker, frees up a lot of floor space during the day!

  13. 13.

    geg6

    April 6, 2014 at 11:33 am

    A goddam bird has been flying into our bedroom window all goddam morning. It’s driving me crazy and Koda is totally freaked out about it.

    The plan for such a glorious spring day is to pick up a few things I forgot while grocery shopping yesterday. Then Koda and I will go to her Uncle Gary’s to chase the kong for a while and expend some of her ridiculous energy. Will finish laundry and spend some time out on the deck in the sun. Dinner is cod baked on a bed of potatoes, thinly sliced fennel and onions in a white wine sauce with asparagus on the side and a Reisling. Wish it was our own fresh asparagus, but it’s too early for that. Can’t wait until they are ready, though.

  14. 14.

    raven

    April 6, 2014 at 11:36 am

    @Betty Cracker: Yea, I have it but it’s showing up greyed out.

  15. 15.

    TOP123

    April 6, 2014 at 11:40 am

    @the Conster: as a Connecticut Yankee in Ted Cruz’s Court, I sincerely hope he leaves his Massachusetts vowels behind…

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    April 6, 2014 at 11:41 am

    @raven: Damn, I bet someone nabbed it then. Usually it’ll show the last known location within 24 hours even if it’s out of juice.

  17. 17.

    Ruckus

    April 6, 2014 at 11:42 am

    Is that thing in the water a barge? From the pic it looks like a floating breakwater. Or maybe a not so floating anymore something. Which may be why it is still there, getting it to the scrapyard may not be worth the effort.

  18. 18.

    ranchandsyrup

    April 6, 2014 at 11:43 am

    @Betty Cracker: May all the sample tables contain your fave items.
    Any wine foil animals lately?

  19. 19.

    PaulW

    April 6, 2014 at 11:45 am

    I’m hosting a housewarming at my new digs, starting around 2 pm. Need to go clean up and start baking cookies.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    April 6, 2014 at 11:50 am

    @ranchandsyrup: No wine foil animals for awhile. I have a whole pile of foil to work with, though. Might have to scale up my artistic vision! ;-)

  21. 21.

    Emma

    April 6, 2014 at 11:59 am

    @Bob: I love that museum. I was in KC ye years ago for an, of all things, copyright conference and snuck away one afternoon to visit.

  22. 22.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    April 6, 2014 at 12:40 pm

    What are y’all up to today?

    Playing records.

    Packing for my work week in Mexico starting tomorrow. Long work days ahead and I’m very cautious about unfamiliar nutrition so I’m packing chow for breakfasts and lunches to be on the safe side.

    Watching out the window as a flock of goldfinches makes short work of 2 quarts of thistle seed.

  23. 23.

    Lee

    April 6, 2014 at 12:44 pm

    Senator Cruz unexpectedly gets a long list of pro-ObamaCare endorsements on his Facebook page.

    So far they have not taken it down

  24. 24.

    beth

    April 6, 2014 at 1:13 pm

    Taxes taxes taxes. Just noticed I made a really stupid mistake on last year’s and will probably have to file an amended return (actually three returns- federal and two states). Damn that’s what I get for waiting till the last minute. Last year I did them on the last day and didn’t check carefully enough. A problem with using Turbotax – if you don’t check a box correctly or forget to fill out something you should, you can easily screw up. I’m going to spend the rest of the day kicking myself.

  25. 25.

    low-tech cyclist

    April 6, 2014 at 1:37 pm

    Tampa has a bohemian section of town? Details, please!

    Admittedly, I don’t get to explore Tampa in much detail, despite having been in and out of there for the past 25 years, because most of our time is spent with the in-laws in Plant City, but always interested in learning.

    Also: what’s your favorite Cuban bakery in Ybor City? We usually stop at La Segunda (right off of I-4) on the way from the airport to the in-laws, and pick up Cuban sandwiches and my favorite delicacy, guava-and-cheese tarts.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    April 6, 2014 at 2:06 pm

    Getting ready to get packed up and head down to CicLAvia. Downside is that my allergies are going crazy today, so I’ll have to take it slow and easy and probably only do one circuit.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    April 6, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    @low-tech cyclist: Ybor City is the bohemian section! La Segunda is a fine bakery. I like the bread at Mauricio Faedo’s on Florida Ave a little better, but they don’t sell sandwiches. Tell me you’ve tried deviled crabs. If not, do so with all possible haste! Carmine’s on 7th Ave has good ones, and pretty much any restaurant on Columbus Ave.

  28. 28.

    Yatsuno

    April 6, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    @Lee: Best. Comment. Evar:

    As a concerned Canadian , I apologize for both Ted Cruz and Justin Beiber , that being said , you can keep both of them , we have a no return policy for defective merchandise .

    I just feel bad it wasn’t RedKitteh who said that.

  29. 29.

    Bob In Portland

    April 6, 2014 at 3:07 pm

    I slept great last night. Up late this a.m. I had a dream that somehow interconnected a big barbeque and a chase through a museum. If I’d slept a little longer I would have been late for a college class or in my high school. Or I’d be carrying mail. I have this recurring dream where I’m given a route the size of the US to carry and somewhere along the California coast the sun is going down and I can’t carry all the parcels and can’t read the street signs in the dark. Sometimes yards turn into thick mud and that just slows me down more. But last night it was that smell of barbecue. There were these sausages roasting and their drippings were falling on corn tortillas which were cooking up nicely.

    Also, I see Vicky Nuland’s coup is blowing up as could have been predicted (and was). 8000 Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea applied for Russian citizenship and the people in Donetsk and thereabouts are demonstrating for independence from Ukraine.

    A coup too far.

    Meanwhile, Gazprom has raised the rates on gas for Ukraine and Russia is asking for all that money owed them so the IMF needs to loan Ukraine in order for them to pay what they owe.

    And it looks like Russia is being pushed into an alliance with China and Iran.

    And I think the sun is supposed to come out and everything warm up for the next few days. Lots of things blooming.

  30. 30.

    Bob In Portland

    April 6, 2014 at 3:12 pm

    Also, for you Seymour Hersh fans.

  31. 31.

    Redkitten

    April 6, 2014 at 3:19 pm

    I realized today that I have not been alone in my own house for more than two hours since August of 2009. What I would give for 24 hours of having the place to myself…

  32. 32.

    low-tech cyclist

    April 6, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    La Segunda is a fine bakery. I like the bread at Mauricio Faedo’s on Florida Ave a little better, but they don’t sell sandwiches.

    For us, the sandwiches are essential. Seriously, we try to time our flights south so that we can get to La Segunda before the deli closes.

    Tell me you’ve tried deviled crabs. If not, do so with all possible haste! Carmine’s on 7th Ave has good ones, and pretty much any restaurant on Columbus Ave.

    We haven’t, but I will tell my wife that we need to fit this in on an upcoming trip.

  33. 33.

    Yatsuno

    April 6, 2014 at 3:29 pm

    @Redkitten: The quiet. The endless quiet…

    Baking off cookies today. Plus laundry. Fun stuffs!

  34. 34.

    A Humble Lurker

    April 6, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    @Bob In Portland:
    If those are actually Crimeans…

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    April 6, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    @Yatsuno: I have asked a time or two, probably when you are already gone from a thread… I haven’t heard anything about the new job or the new city or the new place you live.

    How’s it going? What have I missed?

  36. 36.

    Redkitten

    April 6, 2014 at 3:35 pm

    @Yatsuno: I’d give my eyeteeth for some of that quiet.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    April 6, 2014 at 3:36 pm

    Forgot there was an Open Thread still going and posted this above, but what the hey, will also put it here.

    Anyone else planning on watching the premiere of Turn tonight?

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    April 6, 2014 at 3:47 pm

    @NotMax: I am!

    I was kind of shocked when I visited a Boston exhibit several years ago and saw all the amazing quotes from the folks who fought for our liberty. So I have been kind of hoping that we will see some of that in this show and that it may remind people that it’s not just our right but our duty to speak out and rise up when things aren’t right.

  39. 39.

    Yatsuno

    April 6, 2014 at 4:04 pm

    @WaterGirl: OH! I’ve been scarcer than an albino jackalope!

    The new job is GREAT!!! I get to go to a higher grade than my old job plus I’m a Subject Matter Expert in Collections which they needed. I also know account adjustments pretty well. Not to mention this looks good for what I want to do in my next level in the IRS. So yeah, it’s all good right now.

    Staying with my folks, haven’t done serious place looking until I divorce myself from the old unit. I might just pay out the lease at this point since it would be less sticky. I haven’t decided yet.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    April 6, 2014 at 4:22 pm

    @Yatsuno: I’m so glad the job is working out so well! Two more questions, then I will be done. :-)

    Are you completely recovered from surgery?

    And remind me again, where do your parents live?

  41. 41.

    Yatsuno

    April 6, 2014 at 5:12 pm

    @WaterGirl: In reverse order:

    Parents live in Kennewick, Washington. New gig is in Richland. When I get a place it will be closer but since I’ll be redoing the surgery in January that might not be until after the second one is done. Unless my brother moves in with me. Then I can move sooner.

    As far as the surgery is concerned, by now I’m pretty much back to where I was. In some ways I have improved greatly (no more pain is SWEET!!!) but there’s still more to be done. Then it gets entertaining.

  42. 42.

    J R in WV

    April 6, 2014 at 5:12 pm

    Hey Betty,

    What kind of abandoned water gadget is that awash in Tampa Bay environs? Peculiar looking to say the least. Not like a ship, more like some kind of harbor tool, floating wharf or something like that?

    When we visited the Turks and Caicos there was a huge old cargo ship that was run up onto a reef and abandoned years and years ago.

    No one could make anyone responsible for it… probably loaded with ethylmethyl death and deliberately abandoned somewhere where there was no government with the power to make the captain and crew responsible before they got away.

    Surprised they didn’t run it aground just above the drinking water intake for most of West Virginia!

  43. 43.

    J R in WV

    April 6, 2014 at 5:25 pm

    @geg6:

    We sometimes have a male cardinal attack our house. The windows are pretty reflective from outside, and they think their reflection is another male bird, whom they MUST drive away immediately.,

    So he flys from window to window, pecking at that other cardinal HARD on every window. So many other birds to drive away!

    Years ago I heard a huge crash one evening, broken glass sounds you wouldn’t believe. I walked all around in the house looking for the branch that broke a window, never found anything amiss.

    A couple of days later I was outside, and found where a turkey had flown into a double pane window HARD, and shattered the outer pane into tiny flecks of gravel. But the inner pane was still intact, just fine.

    The Andersen window people gave me a replacement no questions asked. The turkey seemed to have made it OK, no giant pile of feathers or gore, so when it came to, it was able to make its way off into the woods.

  44. 44.

    WaterGirl

    April 6, 2014 at 5:45 pm

    @Yatsuno: The google tells me Kennewick is pretty close to Richland, so that’s good. So glad to hear you are not in pain, and at least you know what to expect in January. I had no idea the new job was so close to your family!

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    April 6, 2014 at 6:01 pm

    Just finished riding through Ruemara’s favorite part of LA — K-Town! Rehydrating with a cooler at Starbucks and then starting the ride back.

  46. 46.

    Betty Cracker

    April 6, 2014 at 6:03 pm

    @J R in WV: Looks like a cargo barge of some sort to me. Lots of phosphate mines hereabouts.

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    April 6, 2014 at 6:05 pm

    @Yatsuno:

    So, random tax question — if I find out that someone owes me a K-1 after I filed my taxes but before April 15, what should I do? I doubt I’ll get it from this mope much before July.

  48. 48.

    Bob In Portland

    April 6, 2014 at 9:13 pm

    @A Humble Lurker: Well, I guess Crimeans are Russians now. But Russia pays about four times what Ukraine pays to its officers (not sure what the difference is among enlisted men, but it’s probably similar), which can certainly affect one’s patriotism. Plus, you join the Russian army and you don’t have to leave Crimea.

    Plus, Ukraine already said they had no place to house soldiers returning from Crimea.

  49. 49.

    mclaren

    April 7, 2014 at 1:47 am

    You get the uneasy feeling that the red barge or freight or whatever it is probably serves as a temporary holding cell for underage girls sex trafficked in from China before they’re turned out on the streets by their snakeheads.

    Or maybe I’ve just read too much Elmore Leonard. The explanation is probably much more benign: it’s most likely just a transport ship carrying heroin.

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