Lily demonstrating what a vicious case of the Mondays looks like:
Woke her up and made her go outside this morning, and it was cold and the ground had frost, so she quickly did her business and said to hell with this and ran back inside. I found this ten minutes later.
donnah
I feel like that too, Lily.
I did get some shopping and shipping done, so that’s in the plus column. I hate holiday traffic, however.
Yatsuno
Lilypuppeh is doing it right.
Running the office solo for the next two weeks, then a few more days afterwards. Good news is the Olympia application moved forward. I also put in one for Hawai’i. I could end up as one of NotMax’s neighbours since one is for the office on Maui.
JPL
It’s 49, cloudy and windy, in my location. Just the type of weather that calls for a book and hot tea.
@Yatsuno: Maui would be nice. Expect company.
Pogonip
Slut.
Patricia Kayden
Smart Lily — I felt lke doing the same myself.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
So I need cat advice. After 5 years of being buddies, Charlotte and Keaton have been fighting all weekend. And I know it’s fighting, not playing, because they are VERY loud. Right now, Charlotte is locked up in my craft room with all the necessities.
We did move recently, which was very upsetting to Charlotte, and we unpacked/moved stuff around this weekend. Plus I had some bookcases delivered from IKEA that seem to be te object of some of the disputes. Any advice? I’m picking up a Feliway diffuser refill on the way home, because that seemed to help settle Charlotte down when we first moved. But we can’t not unpack just because it upsets the cat. ?
Last weird detail: this is happening only when G is not home or otherwise not available (like in the shower), so I’m also wondering if they feel like they’re not getting enough individual attention.
satby
I woke up at 3:30am , then again at 5:07am, and then finally jolted out of bed at 7:07, when I had to get 5 dogs out and in in three shifts because they don’t all play nice, and get dressed and dash out of the house by 7:25 for a 35 minute drive to where I’m job coaching a young lady on her new job. And I ended up 10 minutes early! WITHOUT COFFEE!
Now finishing all the lovely soap orders I got from Juicers over the weekend so they can be shipped in time for Xmas gifting. Which is more fun, and now I get my coffee too, so bonus!
Hungry Joe
We finally made the move: got an all-electric Nissan Leaf. We flat-out love it. It’s fun to plug in, it’s a gas (!) to drive, and the Aren’t We Smug? factor is incalculable. The only downside is the squabbling about who gets to take it; my wife seems to win more often than not, sticking me with the horse-and-buggy-like, outdated Prius.
satby
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Sounds like it. And it’s new territory so a new territorial order needs to be established. Renmind them both you’re the boss of all the territory, get the diffuser, and carry on with unpacking. Isolate in a time out when someone acts very badly. They should get back to balance soon.
satby
@Hungry Joe:
Those of us still sticking our feet through the floors of the car and running feel your pain…. not.
(I did laugh though)
p.a.
@satby: yup. I just sent the comment to a Prius owner telling him he’s soooo 2002.
JPL
Is there an update on Betty’s dog?
Pogonip
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): If they start in while you are unpacking you can always heave empty boxes at them. Then they’ll hide under the furniture for the rest of the day and all will be quiet again.
geg6
Okay, so despite my wishing upon all that is holy that John would forget all about Christmas and all that, I came home from my hair appointment and grocery shopping on Saturday to find a Christmas tree sitting in my driveway. I had so been hoping to not have to deal with one this year. We aren’t having any parties or family gatherings at our house this year, so why bother, right? I just didn’t forcefully push the idea enough, apparently, and my super sentimental partner thought I’d be happy. So I’m totally pretending that I am. Totally pretending.
After figuring out our holiday break days and how many vacation days I needed to use to stretch to a full two weeks, I realized that I still needed to use up some vacation days so I’m not carrying over 21 days (we can only carry over 30 and if I carry over 21 this year, I may lose a few next year). So I took off this Wednesday and next to use some of the time. I had hoped to have nice, quiet, relaxing days mid-week as a prelude to holiday break. Now I will be spending this Wednesday trimming the damn tree. I hate Christmas.
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
She’ll probably have something to report in her next post.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@geg6:
Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet to make your partner happy. Is there something you can introduce as a new “holiday” tradition that will lessen the annoyance? Like, “Hey, let’s go to a new restaurant — it can be our new holiday tradition!” Or, you know, a better idea.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Pogonip:
I know you’re kidding (mostly) but the problem seems to be that one of them gets startled by something, which sets the other one off, and next thing I know, Keaton is hiding in the closet hissing and growling up a storm with Charlotte blocking the exit. So box-throwing would probably lead to bloodletting next, and said blood would probably be mine.
Suzanne
Lily, I feelz you.
We got word last night that Mr. Suzanne’s grandmother is very sick. Like, VERY. So my husband and in-laws are freaking out. We are waiting for some news today.
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I bet they will find their new equilibrium soon. As long as they each have their own soft, cozy places to retreat to, I think this will work itself out.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Apples don’t fall too far from the tree.
Pogonip
@JPL: Yes, we want the latest on Tailgate!
SWMBO
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Does G wear a certain perfume? Could you fix each of them a quiet spot (use an empty box–lol) with a shirt or towel with her scent on it? Even if you have to “time out” both of them, if they have a happy place to go to, it might make them less stressed as you unpack stuff. Put one happy place in the craft room and have the one that starts the argument go in there.
If she doesn’t wear a certain scent, use her shampoo or soap that she showers with to wash the item they get to use. Hide small treats in the towel/shirt/item. Just having a spot that feels safe and familiar may help.
And, yes, I’m aware that you may have already tried this and many more ideas. Just spitballing.
raven
@geg6: I took t weeks at Thanksgiving and have to take off from mthe 18th to the 5th of January to use up my leave. The one thing I want to do is watch the Illini in their bowl on the 26th and we have to do xmas THAT day to suit everyone else in her family.
geg6
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
It has taken me five years to get him to at least downsize the tree. He used to get these humongous things (and we had two dogs in the house!!!!!) and I finally put my foot down. Now he gets one small enough to fit in the bay window in our formal living room, so it doesn’t sit on the floor waiting for a tail to take it out. Being the sentimental guy that he is, I’m betting that this is about as much compromise as I can expect. He knows that I have made no effort to do any Christmas decorating and that I really didn’t plan to. But he has his own idea about what the holidays are, so I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet.
Violet
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Can you give them a treat when you start unpacking so they associate it with something good? If catnip makes them dopey you could try that.
Pogonip
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): We had a cat who would totally ignore “No!”. You had to throw something at him to get him off the table or whatever. He’d run under a chair, peek out cautiously, and say in tones of puzzled innocence, “Meow?”. Ike you had just Hulked out for no particular reason, instead of catching him red-handed. It was hilarious.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Dude, they’re cats. Who do you think I am, Mary Toft?
http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/aug2009.html
shelley
Lily employing the usual doggy logic. Her ass might be hanging out, but if the nose is warm everything else must be too.
Otherwise I agree with her. After one sunny day, yesterday, we’re back to cold, gray and wet for the forseeable future. Ugh.
schrodinger's cat
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): They are not happy with the change. My cats hate it when we move. When we moved from the DC Area my orange kitteh would spend all the day under the bed to convey her displeasure and yowl loudly just in case we didn’t get it. Give it time.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@SWMBO:
(For the record, I’m a she and G is a he. :-)
Keaton definitely has his safe place, which is hiding in the closet where our clean and dirty clothes are. Charlotte doesn’t really have a safe place of her own, so I’m hoping the craft room will eventually be that. Keaton has some dirty clothes that he’s been nesting in, but I should probably put some in the craft room for Charlotte since I’m trying to make that her safe place.
JPL
@Suzanne: I’m so sorry.
Amir Khalid
Should movie star Mark Wahlberg be forgiven for the crimes he committed as a teenage hooligan in Boston?
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Maybe you could set up a few of the empty boxes as hiding places. It sounds as if they’re both stressed out and on edge from the move, so providing some quiet places for them to hang out would probably be helpful.
Belafon
@geg6: My wife loves decorating for Easter, Halloween (this is our big one), Thanksgiving, and Christmas (not quite as big as Halloween), and she puts out flags for Valentine’s day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, and every family member’s birthday (she has a “Celebration!” flag). She’s very traditional and sentimental.
If it were up to me, I would decorate for Halloween and leave it out until Jan 1.
trollhattan
@Hungry Joe:
Congrats! Think I remember you were shopping awhile back–how did you decide on the Leaf?
Next-door neighbors have a new little Mercedes in their driveway plugged into the house–no idea whether it’s all-electric or a plug-in hybrid but it’s a cute li’l thing.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
Yes. IMO, anyone who finishes their sentence and proves they’re capable of being a productive member of society should be forgiven. The extent to which we continue to punish people long after their official sentence is over is absolutely crazy.
gvg
Our youngster dog is turning out to have serious skin allergies, probably fleas which I thought modern treatments had defeated. He is also a very short coated dog which I thought would be good in Florida but now he sheds what little hair he has or at least a lot of it and seems to be very chilly. I am going to have to find a taller nest bed for him. Fairly large dog unlike Lily and doesn’t like blankets (tho maybe if we lived where there was snow he’d learn to like them).
He scratches himself raw fast so even with agressive flea treatments and benedryl he has to wear a cone all the time. It’s been over 2 months and now he acts like cones are normal which happens to mean he just uses it as a ram to get us out of the way. We attached it to a harness instead of the collar so that it doesn’t rest on the itchy neck and stays put better.
geg6
@Amir Khalid:
Sure, as long as everyone else in the same situation as this very white, very privileged guy gets the same treatment.
Belafon
@Amir Khalid: There was one of those E! documentaries on him a few weeks ago. Those charges derailed his rap career and his Calvin Klein modeling.
trollhattan
@gvg:
Wow, that’s rough. Have you evaluated his diet for food allergies? That or perhaps a grass allergy or something else he’s in contact with could be a cause.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Amir Khalid:
I still haven’t forgiven him for Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.
burnspbesq
I nominate the Missouri Court of Appeals as the object of today’s Two Minutes Hate. This is ridiculous.
https://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/consumer-has-to-arbitrate-case-involving-home-invasion-and-severe-beating
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
I never knew there was a book titled Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Anyway, there is now a Giant Evil Corp. movie. The movie is playing in KL. Is it any good?
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
I think you need to spare some of that hate for the USSC, which wrote the precedents the Missouri Court is following in ruling the way they do.
burnspbesq
I’m still giggling over Nike’s latest gaffe.
The made up special commemorative shoes for the LA Galaxy’s Robbie Keane to wear in yesterday’s MLS final, but whoever did the embroidery reversed the green and orange patches, so that instead of bearing the Irish flag, they bore the flag of Ivory Coast.
Well played, y’all.
burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
The USSC gets gets it at least once a week as it is. And I am inclined to think that if the state court had wanted to badly enough, it could have found a way to distinguish those cases.
ET
That pooch doesn’t have much dignity does she.
trollhattan
@ET:
That’s a wonderfully adroit way of avoiding calling her a slut. But we’ve all seen the lap photos (thankfully, no dancing) so there’s no getting around the truth of the matter.
Mike J
@Roger Moore:
There’s a difference between saying that a person has paid his debt to society and should not face further punishment after his official punishment is over and giving a pardon that expunges the record.
Wahlberg committed a racially charged crime. If he had spent the last twenty years using his fame to campaign against hate crimes, I could see an argument for it. I don’t think that’s the case.
Having a record isn’t hurting him. There’s no reason for society to pretend he never committed this crime, even if we don’t continue to punish him.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@geg6:
I’m with you on that. I hate it more than anyone in my circle of acquaintances and that includes the conservative Jew whose (converting) girlfriend was born on 12/25.
Having said that, I’m going to finish shopping for the 4 year old girl I adopted for Xmas gifts. And a big THANKS to satby for a spa basket at cost for my little girl’s mother. I’ve told a lot of folks to shop her site, citing that generosity.
KG
@burnspbesq: maybe it’s just the circles that I’ve practiced in, but it seems to me that most lawyers don’t like arbitration. so it surprises me that everyone still has arbitration clauses in contracts.
Mike E
@Violet: Speaking of dopey, you were asking about recovery time after getting anesthetized…they say you should give yourself 24 hours, and I found it took a couple more days for my head to clear but YMMV.
Roger Moore
@KG:
It’s probably management pushing the arbitration clauses. As a practical matter, arbitration heavily favors big business defendants over the little guy suing them, and it’s supposed to be cheaper, to boot. It makes sense that lawyers wouldn’t like it while management would.
PaulW
just noting that for Florida weather it gets drizzly but not hard rainy during these cold fronts, which means the roads get slick enough to cause fender benders.
Like the one I just had this afternoon.
It’s okay, nobody got hurt but my car is a mess and I’m stressing over THAT now.
Someone needs to tell the Republican Party to give us working Americans better wages to pay for sh-t like this.
catclub
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/republicans-question-obamas-motives-fixing-economy
Jim, Foolish Literalist
High Priest of the Cult of Leadership and Archdeacon of the Church of Broderism Ron Fournier makes what he seems to think is a funny.
schrodinger's cat
@ET: At least she is not moping!
schrodinger's cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: How is he Broder? In his world only Dems are doing it wrong. He is Limbaugh lite.
geg6
@PaulW:
Sorry to hear that. My John almost rolled his SUV a few weeks back during a Saturday morning freezing rain here in Western PA. He wasn’t really hurt at all (sore shoulder and couple of scratches), but he wouldn’t let me see the SUV at first because it looked so bad.
Turns out, it wasn’t all that bad in reality. Instead of getting a new one, my BIL, who has a body shop, is going to fix it even through the insurance company totaled it. He can get it fixed and still have cash left over from the insurance settlement and will still not have a car payment. He’s fine with that and so am I.
srv
damn emoprog
JPL
@catclub: He’s more astute that the folks on MSM.
Ben Cisco
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You misspelled “Racist Douchebag.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodinger’s cat: I was thinking of the pious mewling about the need for civility, which hymnal I think he sings from, especially given the utter tastelessness of his tweet.
Paul in KY
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I’d just let them sort it out. Lots of yowling is usually posturing. If they actually are drawing blood on each other in a physical fight, that’s something different.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: Hell no.
samiam
A man’s got to know his limitations. If son of Lily Cole can stick to nothing but these mindless posts about pets then he’s in the zone. Leave all the political stuff requiring more than childishly simplistic views of the world to the adults.
gogol's wife
@JPL:
I was wondering that too.
First time trying to comment with my new computer. The old one finally died last night — I think the furry thread killed it.
Hill Dweller
The twitter machine is telling me Press Secretary said the Senate’s torture report will be released tomorrow.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Paul in KY
@burnspbesq: That’s fucking crazy. Criminal courts should handle this. It shouldn’t matter what the person wore when he robbed/best the man. The Rental Center uniform was a disguise (in context of the assault).
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Amir Khalid:
It wasn’t very good. You can skip it.
JPL
@Hill Dweller: That’s not surprising since the NY Times has already had an article of the bush apologists. NBCnews had an article online stating that overseas troops are preparing for unrest due to the release.
Paul in KY
@PaulW: Very sorry to hear of your accident. Unfortunately, if you mentioned your lament down at the yacht basin, only chortles & guffaws would be your answer. Maybe some harrumphing, too.
Linnaeus
@Amir Khalid:
One of my childhood favorites.
srv
Capt. Obvious visits Nate’s 538:
schrodinger's cat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hypocrite is his middle name.
satby
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Aww thanks Bella! I hope you like it and the mom does too!
sparrow
@Amir Khalid: I loved that book as a kid.
skerry
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): The book is good. The movie, not so much.
burnspbesq
@KG:
If you represent manufacturers or distributors of consumer goods, or providers of mass-consumption services (especially healthcare), you love arbitration. It’s faster and cheaper than litigation, and arbitrators figure out pretty quickly which side is buttering their bread.
I arbitrated one case when I used to litigate for the Gubmint. It was an estate tax valuation dispute, and we did baseball arbitration, where each side submits a number and the arbitrator has to pick one side or the other’s number. The taxpayer “won,” but the number they submitted in arbitration was several million more than what was on the estate tax return, so we we weren’t terribly upset about losing.
burnspbesq
@samiam:
That would be fine, since you would be excluded.
schrodinger's cat
What is the best photo app for Android, that can browse through my Picasa albums? Right now I am using the browser to do it. There must be a better way. Any help appreciated, thanks!
Mike J
@Paul in KY:
Criminal courts are handling the criminal case, but there is also a civil case.
bemused
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That is a deeply stupid person.
schrodinger's cat
@gogol’s wife: What did you get? I am in the market for a new ultrabook.
Roger Moore
@Paul in KY:
The criminal courts are handling the beating as a crime, but the victim is also trying to sue Rent-A-Center for sending the criminal to his house in the first place. You can argue about whether he has a reasonable cause of action- IANAL, but I think he does- but the existence of the criminal case shouldn’t foreclose that civil case.
Paul in KY
@Mike J: Oh….nevermind ;-)
Paul in KY
@Roger Moore: Of course not. Hope he wins. Think it would hinge on what Rental Centers knew or should have known about their employee.
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
If you’re using an older version of Android, the “Gallery” app should link to your Google account. Newer versions use the “Photos” app. Unfortunately, “Photos” has a major loss of functionality, since there doesn’t seem to be a way of telling it to cache your albums for off-line viewing.
Mike J
@schrodinger’s cat: I seem to remember the photos app handling it, but it’s been a while since I used picassa.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
I have discovered through our Adopt A Family program at work that it’s WAY more fun to buy gifts for people who actually want/need them than it is to buy for family members. Especially teenage family members.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): We just wrapped up almost a month of that. Nervous, very territorial Pixel had a displaced aggression incident with shy little Max, Max’s litter mate Miles jumped in to help, had to shut Pixel up in a spare room. Lots of Feliway, lots of personal attention, and a week later Pixel was ready to consider making friends again, but Miles hadn’t forgiven him. We got a tall pet gate and blocked off one end of the house for a few hours each day. They eventually quit growling at one another through the gate and have been mostly OK since.
Pixel does have communication issues with the other cats. The big issue this week seems to be that he doesn’t realize when one of the others taps out while play wrestling, and we get a loud “Fuck you, I said let me up!” out of the much smaller playmate. (Pixel is 17lb, Max and Miles are 10 and 11.)
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Misplaced aggression is what I’m a little paranoid about. G accidentally stepped on Keaton’s paw yesterday while Charlotte was right next to him, and I think that was a setback, unfortunately. I don’t want to make Charlotte feel like she’s being punished, but it breaks my heart to see Keaton creeping around afraid she’s going to pounce on him. She’s always been Velcro kitty with him, so it’s hard to see them not getting along.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): FWIW, we told Pixel, and he seemed to grok, that we just wanted to give him some peace and quiet without having to worry about the hyperactive little gits. Giving him a few hours in the master bedroom with us, but without the twins, seemed to help a lot. They’re all back to washing each other’s ears at this point, so there’s hope.
KG
@burnspbesq: i can see that. my experience has been even when there’s an arbitration clause, either one side fights (especially if it’s binding) it or the parties agree to mediation. it’s cheaper, but usually because you can’t do as much discovery as you’d like to do.
Hungry Joe
@trollhattan: We went for the Leaf over the Chevy Volt because 1) the Leaf was a lot cheaper — only about $21K with rebates and tax breaks; 2) the Volt only seats four; 3) the Leaf drove and felt better; and 4) the big advantage of the Volt — a range of more than 300 miles, with the internal-combustion-engine backup, as opposed to about 85 miles with the Leaf — was pretty much negated by our already having a standard car (the Prius) for days when a lot of driving is required.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Hungry Joe: When my wife got her Elantra, we test drove the Prius and Honda’s Insight. Like the Prius, hated the Insight; however we couldn’t justify the added cost of the Prius compared to the Elantra. My former neighbor, long time owner of 2 Prius, asked why we didn’t get a plug-in. Told her that being we are apartment dwellers there’s no place to plug it in. Congrats on the new car.
Manyakitty
@satby: Wow, your soaps look great! Do you accept Paypal? I’ve been missing some very obvious stuff lately, so I thought maybe the logo was there but I missed it.
trollhattan
@Hungry Joe:
Sounds good! If I still car-commuted I’d be mulling over the same evaluation but hey, not doing that anymore.
As a result my car has low miles but of course there are things on any car that simply decay with age, regardless of wear and tear and I’m wrapping up year 15. Definitely out of practice with the wretched car-shopping thing so I’m ignoring the whole thing.
Barely related, I wonder how many of the memory-challenged are out shopping for really big, old-school SUVs, trucks and the like now that gas is at two-and-a-half bucks. “Because that’s forever, right?” Right.
Xboxershorts
Great! I open up balloon-juice at work and the first thing I see is a doggy porn money shot,
C’mon man, get with it! Start using the NSFW type warnings dude!
trollhattan
@BillinGlendaleCA:
There’s a Farrelly brothers movie in there somewhere, or at least a Portlandia episode: Couple buys electric car and parks it at their apartment alongside a gas generator they use to charge it. Hijinks ensue.
trollhattan
@Xboxershorts:
Will share my solution: edit bookmark text to “Balloon NSFW Juice “
catclub
@trollhattan:
Basically, all of the US. Pickup Truck sales have jumped a LOT in just the past month.
schrodinger's cat
@Roger Moore: I have the Gallery app.
gogol's wife
@schrodinger’s cat:
It’s a Macbook Pro, I think. I would really just like a typewriter. But my employer thinks otherwise.
satby
@Manyakitty: Thanks! I had to go look, and I added PayPal as an option, so yes. Glad you asked!
Woodrowfan
first the furry thread, now this puppy porno
J R in WV
@geg6:
One of the best parties we ever had was the year we put up a huge tree, and left it bare. Then after pot-luck dinner, we brought up boxes of decorations, starting with lights. Needed an 8 foot stepladder to get it done, but it was beautiful, and everyone had a good time, even the wiccans.
So instead of wearing yourself out, invite folks over for a pot-luck dinner, make something easy, like a big stew, and go for it.
Manyakitty
@satby: Thanks!!!
Sorry to be a pest, but wasn’t there something about free shipping?
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
The book is actually hilarious, in an illustrated-book-for-small-children sense. Story was based on author Viorst’s actual middle son, and this interview is kinda entertaining, too.
Anne Laurie
@Mike J:
In Wahlberg’s defense, he’s put in time & money since then working with “at risk” teen groups. And because he’s got a felony conviction, he can’t get a liquor license for his restaurant. His main argument for the pardon is that it will establish that even a convicted felon can earn redemption, that the law shouldn’t continue to punish people indefinitely, because it discourages young “offenders” from making the necessary changes. Not everybody agrees with his argument, however.
Manyakitty
@Manyakitty: Can’t wait to check out my soaps!
Montarvillois
A lucky dog indeed.