I mentioned a while back that one of my dogs had become fat and lethargic, so I took her to the vet. She was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism hypothyroidism, and the vet prescribed a twice-daily pill.
It’s working — she has more energy and has already lost about seven pounds. I also got to witness Pavlovian principles first hand: I set an alarm on my phone to remind me to administer a pill at 8 AM and 8 PM daily. I chose a barking dog ringtone for the alarm.
I hide the pills in cheese, and because I have two dogs, both get a piece of cheese when it’s time to administer a dose because otherwise it would be NO FAIR. Now when the alarm goes off, both dogs drool and stare “time for the cheese, damn it!” at me.
So, I can make dogs drool and stare with my phone. What’s your super power today?
Baud
Could I get some of those pills?
MattF
I can raise my blood pressure by reading David Brooks.
OzarkHillbilly
I can piss of wingnuts by breathing.
FlyingToaster
I’m about to abandon* WarriorGirl and drive down to Connecticut and clean out a townhouse**.
* leaving her home with HerrDoktor, after she hid sugar packets around the living room and attracted a few thousand ants, which we cleaned out last night. Low VOC crawling insect spray for the win!
** of about 30 years of detritus from a near-hoarder. I’ve been down twice in the last year, and now she’s been moved out we can actually start emptying the joint.
debbie
I can silence my entire family of GOPers with just a look whenever they start bad-mouthing Obama — even a grizzled ex-Marine.
Iowa Old Lady
A bridge in Iowa was shut down yesterday because the mayflies were piled too deep. And you thought Sharknado was a problem!
http://wqad.com/2015/07/22/mayflies-force-shutdown-of-savanna-sabula-bridge/
FortGeek
Seen elsewhere: “I can turn alcohol into regret.”
My superpower is that I’ve lost about 18 pounds of water weight since January, thanks to getting my damaged aorta relined with stents. I wish the fat weight was as easy to get rid of. Might need tights and a cape for that.
sparrow
Running on about day 40 of Continuous Contact With Other Humans aka the long-term working vacation at the family summer house with all manner of extended family, grandparents, etc, constantly in and out and 5 noisy grandkids and I’m about 1 stubbed toe away from just unloading on everyone. Lesson learned on this trip: introverts NEED alone time. “Need”, not “would like” or “find it nice”. I’m just exhausted and very very cranky. Not cool for the others either, obviously…
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: OMFG, it’s like a horror movie!
ThresherK (GPad)
@FlyingToaster: Where in CT? And do you need to borrow a handtruck?
OzarkHillbilly
@FlyingToaster: Some friends have an apt building next to a house that had a hoarder living in it. Nicest sweetest old lady I’ve ever met. Beautiful garden. They had a 40 yard dumpster in front of her house for 3 weeks after she left.
satby
@FlyingToaster: I “downsized” to my current home when I moved to the country to do more pet rescue and I really underestimated how much room my projects and the animals that need to be separated would take. IOWs: I have stuff everywhere.
I keep posting it on Etsy and EBay to try to get rid of it and to help pay bills. My nightmare is that I drop dead suddenly, leaving my kids stuck sorting out the animal/ objects situation. And I am nowhere near a hoarder, because I know people who actually are. The right size space makes a huge difference.
Valdivia
Reported in El Nuevo Herald this am, apparently Obama might be traveling to Havana sometime next year. I really hope it happens, quite a historic moment.
Linky: though it’s in spanish
http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/cuba-es/article28341589.html
Gene108
@FortGeek:
The best I’ve ever done is lose 10 pounds and then gain it back.
18 pounds is nothing to feel bad about.
Good job! Keep up the good work.
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: eww! It has been a really bad flies summer. They dive bomb me and the animals when we go out.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: Here’s one closer to (your) home. Another reason not to go to Florida, as if I needed more. “A leprosy outbreak in Florida has been attributed to spitting armadillos.“
MattF
@Valdivia: I’m thinking that next summer will be a good moment to visit Havana. Before Trump gets there and away from the horrors of Campaign ’16.
satby
@FortGeek: That’s great! You must be feeling lots better! Congratulations.
TheMightyTrowel
I submitted three abstracts for two conferences today. This could be a mistake.
JPL
@Iowa Old Lady: They are very religious folks.
OzarkHillbilly
@Iowa Old Lady: I went thru a week long hatch of mayflies up in Canada. In your face, your hair, down your collar, just everywhere. Walking was ‘crunch.crunch.crunch…” The fishing was lousy the whole week too.
dmsilev
@TheMightyTrowel: How much, if any, overlap in the material covered? Three presentations is a lot of work…
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: I’ve never heard of armadillos spitting! They aren’t hard to avoid — they run away if they see you. I’ve seen 1,000 squashed ones on the road for every live one I’ve encountered. I always thought they were sort of cute in a “so ugly it’s cute” kinda way…
RobNYNY1957
Are you sure it isn’t hypothyroidism (rather than hyperthyrodism)? The symptoms of hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) are the same in human beings, and the treatment is an oral dosage of thyroid hormone.
MomSense
I have the ability to fall asleep on the couch in the middle of chaos and sleep through a dog barking, while people play video games and talk loudly in the same room.
Valdivia
@MattF: :)
Though probably not how he should choose, I would love if he would time it for most wingnut head explosions before the election.
Germy Shoemangler
Wingnuts are crowing “HRC is sinking in the polls!”
And there’s really nothing I can say to dispute them.
Or is there?
Mustang Bobby
@Valdivia: That muffled thud you hear are the exploding heads of los historicos on Calle Ocho. Heh.
Germy Shoemangler
Dog hates his ear medicine
beltane
@OzarkHillbilly: My mother is a hoarder and compulsive yard-sale shopper who likes to spread the wealth. Not once in the past 12 years she’s lived near me, has she visited without bringing over a carload of useless crap. We also live in a rural area where trash disposal is expensive and inconvenient. Before putting the house on the market, we filled one big dumpster and also had several smaller pick-ups of her crap. My son says we should send her the bill.
I loathe clutter above all things.
Betty Cracker
@RobNYNY1957: Might be!
FortGeek
@Gene108: Thanks, but all I did is pee *grin*.
Still, this is the lightest I’ve been since passing 294 on the way up in 2011. Feeling pretty good about that.
Randy P
My superpower is knowing what time it is. Seriously. Comes from years of waiting for buses, I think, but whatever it is I have a pretty good sense of elapsed time.
My wife will ask me the time and before looking at, say, my phone, I will calculate “well the last time I saw the time it was 1:15 and it feels like it’s been a little less than 2 hours.” So I call out that I think it’s about 3. Then verify. I’m usually within 5-10 minutes.
She’s the only person I can impress with this feat, but she’s the only person in the world it matters to me that I impress. So I have that going for me.
Valdivia
@Mustang Bobby: Yep. The embassy opening was not enough, now they have to hear Obama plans to go there. Ha!
debbie
@satby:
I couldn’t believe how much stuff my mom had. No one knew while she was alive because her apartment was so tidy, but you practically needed a crowbar to get all the stuff out of her closets. None of it was useless stuff; mostly memory-stuff of my dad, old friends, and her childhood. But she never took anything out to look at (I lived with her for a few years); I think it was enough just knowing that stuff was there.
Valdivia
@Germy Shoemangler: If this about the Q-polls yesterday? Pay no mind. Quinnipiac is always about +5 points too friendly to the GOP and it’s only one poll. This far out only poll averages matter.
cmorenc
I wish I had computer “tech / warranty support” superpowers. I am currently going through a warranty support NIGHTMARE with Lenovo getting what should be a simple replacement for the dead wireless card in my Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook – I’ll spare you the all the gruesome details, but let’s just say that despite acknowledging (as they must) that this is a repair covered by warranty, they have blundered at every step along the way so far, including (after I freshly received the computer back from a trip to their grapevine, texas facility for the hardware repair – received it back with the wireless card just as obviously dead as when I sent it off to them (device manager cannot even see the card exists) – and when I reported this, got an email back “we have no service record on your computer…” And that’s only the latest in this tragicomedy of errors by them that’s wasted two weeks (and many hours) of my time already – JUST REPLACE THE STUPID CARD ALREADY WHYDONCHA. I could open the case and do it myself, except a) I’d risk voiding the warranty on the rest of the computer; b) from others who have tried replacing the card (some easily and successfully) – it’s apparently tricky to order just the right $30 or so Intel replacement card that fits the slot and space and is also a model the computer’s BIOS will accept as compatible…meanwhile without a functioning wireless card, all I’ve got is a sleek-looking electronic brick. ARRGH!
I suppose it could be worse – at least I’m not trying to deal from jail with an arrest by some martinet cop for failing to signal a lane change, because I seemed like the wrong kind of person to the cop. Looked at that way, my struggles with Lenovo and this computer look trivial.
Germy Shoemangler
@Valdivia: Yes, the Quinnipiac. All I’ve been hearing lately is “the democrats are doomed!”
maurinsky
I have the ability to turn green lights red as I approach them.
Josie
@MomSense: You are obviously the mother of at least three boys (or more).
Valdivia
@Germy Shoemangler: I can’t remember where I saw this but some data poli-sci person said yesterday that state polls at this stage are the least reliable. Look only at poll averages at national level. There is a reason why the one anomalous poll gets attention: because it is anomalous. It’s too many months away from any actual voting, no need to worry!
Also, because I saw it this am: the Q polls are varying wildly from month to month in the number of men they poll, this set had an unrealistic number of them, compared to the state’s voting patterns.
Hope this helps.
RSA
@FortGeek:
Nice. There’s a guy I chat with once in a while at the fitness club I go to. We both started in early fall of last year, and he’s steadily lost a pound per week since that time. It’s kind of inspirational to see him hitting his milestones.
Germy Shoemangler
@Randy P:
We have the same superpower. My sense of the passage of time is heightened.
If I put clothes in the washing machine or dryer, and then wander to a different part of the house, at some point I’ll suddenly look up and think “they’re ready.” And sure enough, just as I’m walking downstairs I’ll hear the “beep beep your clothes are ready” alert go off.
I can tell you within five or ten minutes the correct time, even if I’m nowhere near a clock. Also, whenever I am compelled to set the morning alarm, I will wake up SUDDENLY about ten seconds before it goes off.
But my superpower comes with a tradeoff. The part of my brain that perceives distance and directions is atrophied. If I am driving in an unfamiliar place, it all becomes a confusing mosaic. I can’t process places where there is confusing mall sprawl (meaning multi-lane roads surrounded by indoor/outdoor malls with multiple entrances and off-ramps).
The scene in “Little Miss Sunshine” where the father misses his exit actually made my palms sweat.
FortGeek
@satby: Thanks. I can see and feel the difference in my legs. My crappy circulation is getting less crappy.
The biggest change has been that I can go to a big box store like Lowe’s and wander the aisles. A few months ago, I’d have to stop and sit every few minutes, so I’d avoid anyplace much larger than a convenience store even for grocery shopping.
What a difference that makes–Winn Dixie vs. Dollar General! Maybe I should have claimed “mobility” as the superpower.
Kirbster
@sparrow: I understand completely. I inherited the family beach house and live there year-round. During “the season,” it’s often like The Short Notice Bed & Breakfast Inn, with people sleeping in every room except the kitchen and bathrooms, and all their stuff strewn about.
I haven’t stubbed my toe lately, but the burns from the great clam boil from a couple of weekends ago are almost healed…
Randy P
@Germy Shoemangler: I think we’re seeing what many people have been predicting, the desperate need for the press to maintain a horse race narrative, no matter what the data says. Sell those clicks, dammit!
ThresherK
@Valdivia: Didn’t know that about Q. Are they no better than Zogby or Rasmussen?
So, it’s “Hillary is sinking (sic) in the poll“, not polls then. No wonder wingnuts are hepped up about it.
PS For the hoarder-handlers on this page, a timely comic.
TaMara (BHF)
@debbie: I want your super power.
OzarkHillbilly
My other super power is an innate ability to always pick the slowest lane whether it be in traffic or the grocery store.
Amir Khalid
Oh please please please FSM make this happen …
Josie
I can smell when something is done in the oven, such as biscuits, cornbread, bread, cakes, etc. When it smells a certain way, I check the timer and I am usually accurate to less than 30 seconds. Either I have a good sense of smell or I have been doing the cooking for 50 or 60 years. Wow, that makes me really old.
FortGeek
@maurinsky: I can do that, but my usual variation is to keep the light red until…I’m…going…just…slow…enough to have to shift into 1st gear. *BLIP* green light. That or just as my car stops–*BLIP* green light.
Valdivia
@ThresherK: They do a lot of state polls. And I remember their numbers are always more GOP friendly than others. Obama always had bad numbers in NY with them. To the point that in 2012 someone used one of their polls to say Romney had a chance in the state. We know how that turned out.
They do revert to the mean closer to the election, but ahead of it: used for trolling galore by the other side.
They released a bunch of state polls this week in which Hilary was losing to Rubio, Jeb and Walker I think.
Scout211
Betty, do you mean hypothyroid? The symptoms of hyperthyroidism are usually too much energy, insomnia and irritability.
Our dog, who died several years ago, was hypothyroid for years but the vet we had at the time had misdiagnosed it as skin allergies. (Hypothyroidism can cause dry and itchy skin). When he sold his practice, the new vet who bought his practice diagnosed the thyroid condition immediately. But our dog had gone for so long with an underactive thyroid that it shortened her life. :(
boatboy_srq
@cmorenc:
Redundant problem is redundant. Lenovo shoots itself in the foot with such regularity the company ought to push a lead-remediation podiatrics benefit. Best advice: pitch the Lenovo for almost anything else (ASUS,HP, Dell, Toshiba all preferable).
ThresherK
My wife’s superpower is not going Full Metal Social Worker on me, even after 26 years.
I’m a bit old to be at Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Children, but my nascent, evolving superpower is meting out, bit by bit, little amounts of technical expertise from me to her, at a rate that she can absorb and utilize. This goes for using the TV remote control or a computer keyboard.
debbie
@TaMara (BHF):
It helps to have always been considered the family crank with a big mouth.
MattF
@Valdivia: Also, even aside from Q’s unreliability, polls are generally getting less reliable. Specific recent examples are the UK elections and the Greek referendum. I don’t know how long it will take for this to dawn on the horse-race reporters. Probably never.
Iowa Old Lady
I see Obama is going to Kenya. The man knows how to troll.
japa21
Some people use their superpowers to impress people, such as spouses. I’m not sure if mine impresses Mrs Japa or ticks her off.
We can go into a store with a list of things to get plus a dollar limit and as we put thing in the cart I can keep track of cost plus tax and tell her how much we have going and how much we have left without a calculator or paper. She’ll constantly tell me I’m wrong and it isn’t that much. Usually, when we check out, I am with 1-2% of the actual total.
I’m not really mathematically oriented so I don’t know eactly how I do it.
MattF
@Iowa Old Lady: Ancient history, but Obama was trolling Trump years ago.
FlipYrWhig
@Germy Shoemangler: You could try not talking to them, being that they’re a bunch of awful, foul, and crazy idiots.
japa21
@Iowa Old Lady: At least the media is calling it his “ancestral homeland”. I remember some major network in the past (and it wasn’t Fox) not using the term ancestral.
Valdivia
@MattF: @Germy Shoemangler: @ThresherK:
Apropos of the QPac discussion, just saw this
cmorenc
@boatboy_srq:
The Yoga 2 Pro really is a nice computer – so long as you don’t run into a glitch that requires tech support. However, they’re starting to make me pine for going back to Dell next time for a notebook-format computer, with their string of blunders on what should’ve been a simple repair, needing only the right wireless card replacement and a torx 5 screwdriver to fix. I’d be tossing the $1100 and change I spent buying the thing if I ditched it (it’s only 7 months old).
But you’ve reinforced what I already decided – this will be the LAST Lenovo computer I will ever own, after this nightmare. Dell computers can have their own warts and bugs – but every time I or anyone else in my family who owns one has needed tech support for hardware warranty issues, it’s been excellent, fast, and no-hassle.
Amir Khalid
TPM reports the Republican party is turning on a SCOTUS with a conservative majority for still not being conservative enough. How does that make the five Justices more sympathetic to its agenda?
Betty Cracker
@Scout211: Yes, it must by HYPO. Our girl also had dry, itchy skin, which the medication seems to be helping. The turnaround really has been remarkable. Sorry your vet didn’t catch it quicker — that really sucks.
Germy Shoemangler
@FlipYrWhig:
Very true.
And they vote!
CaseyL
My superpower is apparently some kind of shapeshifting, because my cats don’t always recognize me when we’re all outside.
This usually happens, oddly enough, when it’s time for them to come inside.
Suddenly, instead of being “Mommy who adores me,” I’m “Monster! Monster! Run Away!” – I get the startled crouch, wide eye stare, and bolt-like-lightning treatment.
Capri
My superpower is being able to ignore a pile of work on my desk in order to read every comment in a Balloon-juice thread. I use it frequently.
rikyrah
@Iowa Old Lady:
That just freaked me out
Mustang Bobby
My superpower is being invisible to guys I’d like to go out with, and conversely appearing to be hot and sexy to guys I don’t.
ruemara
My superpower today is being pissed at liberals for being themselves and being annoyed at hearing EVERY body noise as well as the low grade tinnitus the messed up ears has trapped in my skull.
boatboy_srq
@cmorenc: When Lenovo bought the ThinkPad range from IBM they promised stuff like what you’re going through wouldn’t happen, because supposedly they were holding themselves to IBM’s standard for quality control. They also touted a spyware-free user experience. They’ve been weighed/measured/found-wanting on almost every count almost since the first generation of Lenovo-branded products. Beautiful machines, full of promise, but sorely lacking in reliability/support/bloatware. Best of luck in badgering them into helping out.
boatboy_srq
@Mustang Bobby: I think that’s called “being gay”. Far as I can tell it’s pandemic.
debbie
@Mustang Bobby:
Like walking into a bar in Jersey.
boatboy_srq
@CaseyL: Housemate’s cat does the same thing – although in her case it’s less “Monster! Run Away!” than “Oh, goody! Playtime! Chase me? Please?” Never seen a cat that liked being chased around the house like this one. We’re thinking of adding a puppy to the household, just so there’s somebody who can chase kitty around the house whenever she wants.
Mustang Bobby
@boatboy_srq: Yeah, except the guy I really wanted to settle down with up and moved to Virginia to take a better job… *ahem*
boatboy_srq
@Mustang Bobby: Oops… [blush]
sharl
@Amir Khalid: The conservative majority faction of the USSC are justices who are approved by major U.S.-based business interests and their operative organization which exerts the most influence over the U.S. judiciary. That would be the Federalist Society, a group explained quite well by Al Franken a few years ago.
As long as those business interests are content with the majority on the Roberts court, the justices have nothing to worry about – at least not directly – from the low-information, easily aroused socially conservative faction of the GOP. It is, and has always been, the task of the business cons to weaponize the social cons when it is useful for the former to do so, then calm them when that later becomes necessary. That has become a more difficult task as the economy has become weaker and insecure, but so far the biz cons are holding the line.
satby
@debbie: I’m realizing that stuff I value because it was handed down from elderly relatives I value most because I remember them, and my kids value less because they don’t; so it might be a nice antique but it holds no special thrill for them, and they aren’t into antiques. So I decided I can keep my memories and sell the stuff, except for the VERY few things that my kids find meaningful too. Sometimes it makes me sad that I won’t have it to pass down, but realizing that many of these relatives died before my second son was even born puts it into perspective.
But boy will they ever be pissed if they get into antiques when they’re older and they realize I tried to interest them in this stuff before I got rid of it!
satby
@japa21: Ireland is also his ancestral homeland, and I remember them saying that at the time. Grudgingly.
Cervantes
@ruemara:
Are you sure those are two separate phenomena?
ruemara
@Cervantes: yes. See, you’ve been annoying for a while; th betrayal just happened. Practical empirics works.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Valdivia: So Q gets more accurate the closer the election or primary?
That’s like cheating in a lab experiment. “Hey, what did they get over there?”
And it’s not even original. rasmussrn’s been celebrated for its “closing speed” w.r.t other pollsters for years now. When there was theidea of sowing “good news for Republicans”, Ras will be there to create thechatter. But when the actual day rolls around, they start converging on the mean.
It’s a mathematical miracle!
Cervantes
@ruemara:
A physician may be able to help with the sound in your ears. Have you seen one?
As for your complaining about “liberals,” and (on a more amusing note) this:
[Best let it stand. I don’t think I can improve upon it by commenting.]
Bill Murray
@FortGeek: I can beat that, I lost 50 pounds of water weight in about 2 weeks. Technically over a month or two I had lost 50 pounds but basically had replaced the lost fat/muscle with water my body loved too much to let go. Congestive heart failure really sucks, but quite a lot of older people get it, so the treatments are pretty well understood and I am out of the CHF.
Paul in KY
@CaseyL: I get that one too. At dark they no want to come in.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Dogs have a remarkably developed sense of NO FAIR, almost as keen as a six-year-old kid’s. We have to go through the same ritual when one of ours needs meds. It’s like a bizarro episode of Oprah – “YOU GET CHEESE! AND YOU GET CHEESE! EVERYONE GETS CHEESE!!!”
Bill Arnold
My superpower is stating the obvious.
(I aspire to being the first, very very occasionally.)
NCSteve
I have two elderly, sickly cats (down from four as of a couple of weeks ago). Whenever I read about the process of giving pills to a dog, I can only sigh in envy.
Arclite
About the cheese, thyroid medication doesn’t mix well with calcium, it reduces the effectiveness. Might want to hide it in something else.
FlyingToaster
@ThresherK (GPad): west of New Haven.
We don’t need anything but for [redacted] to have fewer than 150 rolls of paper towels and to have toilet paper in the bathrooms rather than the clothes closets.
ThresherK
@FlyingToaster: Okay, sorta good to hear. I’ve had to pick paths through clutter (bordering on the verge of hoarding) that was much less useful than TP and PT.