We had homemade pizza for supper last night. It was delicious:
On a completely unrelated topic, I thought troop cuts were in the offing, but that hasn’t stopped military recruiters from bombarding me with text messages about a career in the service. It’s not really me they want. It’s my daughter, who is starting her senior year of high school next week. Either the little shit is giving them my phone number, or, more likely, the school is passing off my number as hers and cooperating with the recruiters to generate cannon fodder.
At first I just ignored the messages, but finally I broke down and replied to one yesterday, letting the recruiter know that the number belonged to a lazy, middle-aged hippie who is wholly unsuited for military service. She called me anyway! (I guess they don’t read replies but rather call any number that generates a response.) We chatted for a while, and after she learned that my daughter’s plans don’t include military service, she wished us luck and hung up. I’ll go back to ignoring the messages.
Last completely unrelated topic: my car is in the shop right now getting a really cool stereo system installed, and I’m ridiculously excited about it. I don’t buy new cars for myself because I’m cheap practical, and Florida is a wonderland of low-mileage cream puffs if you know where to look (hint: obituaries), so I don’t miss the new car experience at all.
But I do miss having the latest integrated media technology. Now I shall have it, and just in time for my long drive up to visit my old gran this weekend!
Got any exciting plans yourself?
Iowa Old Lady
My exciting plan is celebrating the fact that an ultrasound this morning shows that the soreness in my left breast and underarm is not due to breast cancer. So yay!
dmsilev
Moving day is upon me! Or rather, moving week-and-a-half. Today, the movers and riggers set up their gear, the electrician and pipe fitters did their disconnects, and the first load of crates have arrived. Monday, the loading frenzy starts. Going to be a long week…
Amir Khalid
You were mentioning that one of your dogs was having thyroid problems. How is she now?
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
I hope you’ve budgeted enough time and, um, resources to de-stress afterwards.
Matt McIrvin
I remember the Navy was after me pretty hard when I was in my senior year of high school. They seemed to want people who they thought might be technically inclined. I don’t remember the other services recruiting at me as much.
Keith G
Awww Betty, why’d ya have to go and post that?
My calorie and fat conscious supper no longer interests me. I now want fatty meats covered with melted cheese.
schrodinger's cat
That looks awesome. What recipe do you use for pizza dough?
Tommy
I love the pie. Please send me a slice. But as something of a foodie I see that good sea salt in your pic. I can’t tell you how much buying good salt has worked for me. Makes everything I eat better.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker
Sounds like somebody scored themselves a new Buick! An ironically good choice for speeders, since nobody actually believes one would ever do 80. The eternal left blinker is annoying, though.
burnspbesq
Congrats to Capt. Griest and Lt. Haver. Y’all are amazing.
trollhattan
Bottle avec message comes ashore after 108 years at sea.
Keith G
Speaking of our military, I see that earlier today two off-duty US servicemen subdued gunman on Paris-bound train. There were serious injuries. One American was listed, but no word yet if that was one of the service members.
Benw
@Matt McIrvin: the Navy’s always hard up for people to run their reactors on their subs and carriers.
dmsilev
@Amir Khalid: I’m the guest of honor at a going-away party in about fifteen minutes. Adult beverages have been promised.
Amir Khalid
@trollhattan:
Per the BBC, the finder got the promised reward of a shilling — in the old, pre-decimal money. Which isn’t legal tender anymore, if I’m not mistaken. Ah, well. 5p in the new money isn’t worth all that much either.
JPL
@dmsilev: Have fun.
burnspbesq
@Keith G:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/21/amsterdam-paris-train-gunman-france
jeffreyw
Nice Pie! I’ve had a fondness for aftermarket car stereos, had a decent head unit in the last truck with a big screen handy for backing up video. Traded that thing off for a new Ford with the high end Sync unit with the Sony audio that gets plenty loud. We saw an armadillo road kill this afternoon, first I’ve seen here in S Illinois although I’ve heard tell they are becoming more common.
p.a.
Looks yummy. Pizza stone?
beltane
True about the low-mileage cream puffs. My mother was just given a 2005 Corolla with only 23,000 miles on it from my 101 year old grandmother who was finally made to realize that her driving days are over.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Iowa Old Lady:
Congratulations! Good news indeed.
ThresherK (GPad)
Good looking pie. And of course the butter dish makes its appearance.
Thinking of the no-knead bread mentioned earlier this week. However it calls for rising at 70 F, a temp my Kitchen never sees except on the way to 80F now, or 60F in the winter.
How does 80 to 85F affect rising time? Is that warm just going to ruin the size of the interior bubbles, and therefore the texture?
Bill
In my senior year of HS (way back in the dark ages of the Reagan presidency), I got tons of calls from recruiters. (A number of my friends enlisted, and apparently gave my name as potential fresh meat.) Usually once I told them I was going to college and majoring in music the call quickly ended. But the following exchange was pretty funny:
Me: “I’m already enrolled in college and I’m majoring in music.”
Army Recruiter: “We can help you pay for school.”
Me: “I’ve got that covered.”
AR: “Music huh? You must be in the marching band. We march a lot in the Army I bet you’d fit right in.”
Me: “I’m a voice major. I sing.”
AR: “Oh.”
They must’ve really been desperate for bodies to fight the commies back then.
Ohio Mom
It’s a little known provision of the No Child Left Behind legislation that high schools are REQUIRED to share their students’ names and contact information with the military for recruitment purposes. Like anyone who was interested in enlisting couldn’t find a recruiter on their own.
Some high schools will let you know you can fill out an Opt-Out form to prevent your kid from being contacted/pestered but most don’t. The ACLU and the Quakers have sample forms on their web sites. But sounds like it is too late for such paperwork for the Cracker family.
Gindy51
Pizza looks great.
Wait till after your daughter takes the ASVAB like mine did. She ranked 100/100 on it and we got calls from EVERY branch of the service you can imagine, Coast Guard to the Marines. She had no desire to enter the military and the calls didn’t stop until her LtCol USMCR dad got on the phone and told them to leave her the hell alone.
PaulW
Trust me: the Armed Forces are constantly desperate. When I was in high school I was aiming for a Navy ROTC scholarship – blame dad – so I had to take the ASVAB. I did okay, passed the bare minimums, and next thing I knew the ARMY was calling me almost every day even after I’d told them for the 387th time that was a Navy brat and I was not interested AT ALL with signing up with them (on another note, I failed to get the ROTC scholarship because that was the same year Jim Webb – yeah, him – cut back on college scholarships). The Army still kept calling my parents two years after I’d headed off to college.
The schools are in tight with military recruiters. At Tarpon Springs the Marine Corps had a table outside the guidance counselor’s module every day during the mid-80s, getting all these suburban white boys to sign up and wear USMC t-shirts every other Friday. It was unsettling.
beltane
@Bill: My oldest son is a drummer so they were pushing the band thing hard. He also told them about his colorblindness but they said this wasn’t a problem anymore.
kc
That’s a purty pizza. I like that butter dish, too.
Germy Shoemangler
I am frankly baffled by the doings of my letter carrier. The day before yesterday he delivered a magazine that was soaking wet. (We haven’t had any rain in days.) Yesterday he delivered another wet magazine. The first time I just assumed he was carrying a leaky water bottle or something in his bag, but two days in a row?
So today I got my mail, and there was a letter addressed to a person several blocks away (different street, same house number). So he is mis-delivering mail on top of soaking it.
What gives?
I’m hoping he’s filling in for someone on vacation, and will be gone soon. We used to have a regular carrier; a nice lady who was competent. I gave her five dollars for xmas. I think she retired last year because since then we’ve had a stream of various carriers. This latest guy I didn’t recognize at all.
trollhattan
@Gindy51:
Local HS Class of ’15 girl was accepted to ALL THREE academies and the last I read was trying to decide which one to attend. Didn’t even know such a thing was possible; don’t you have to go through your congresscritter’s office and such?
trollhattan
@Keith G: @burnspbesq:
A bit more info.
Way to go, Marines.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
So I have a military enlistment-ish question for people: my 17-year-old nephew wants to enlist in the Marines after graduation (his late father was a Marine and it was their joint dream). Since I know the Marines can be picky, does he also need, like, a safety service if he doesn’t get in? If so, I would tell him to try the Coast Guard because (a) he grew up boating and loves it and (b) it seems to have a lower probability of him being sent to a foreign country to get his ass shot off. Thoughts? Opinions?
Jay C
SO: inquiring minds* want to know: in this era, is the prospect of being pitched for military service the dividing line between “apple of the parental eye(s)” and “the little shit“, really the breakpoint?
*a polite euphemism, of course
Roger Moore
I have the day off- I was getting close to maxing out my vacation time- so I stayed home and started a batch of chile verde. Now it’s simmering away on the stove until dinner time.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Does the kid want to be a Marine or does the kid want to join the military and have a preference for the Marines?
Marc
@Bill: I was also being recruited by the military in the early 80’s. Navy wanted me for nuclear reactors (high math/science grades/scores) – I was living in San Diego, and knew I didn’t want to be on a ship, so that took the Marines out of the running too. Army wanted me for EOD (of all things), but the recruiter was spewing so much BS that even my young brain could detect the need for hip waders, and I never returned to his office. The Air Force recruiter (who I didn’t know was getting out of the service) explained everything – career options, what training was going to be like, and even said several times “I’m glad you asked X” and then proceeded to tell me stuff I’d not asked about. Needless to say, I did 20+ years split between active duty and the California Air National Guard. W got me out, else I probably would have gone for 30, but that is another story.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Omnes Omnibus:
He primarily wants to be a Marine, but I think he would be open to another branch if he didn’t get it. He’s not really college-minded and there aren’t a lot of trades open anymore, so the military would probably be a good fit.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
I think the old shillings are still legal tender at the value of 5p. The older ones have mostly been pulled from circulation on account of them containing silver. FWIW, though, there are still occasional old coins in circulation. My father was given a sovereign- an actual gold coin!- in his change the last time he was in England. They apparently look a lot like the existing one pound coins, and he thinks somebody recognized it as not a regular pound coin and decided to pass it off on the dumb American who wouldn’t know better.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Well then, the Marines would be YOOOGE and classy. Good question, though, about the requirements. We’re well past the recession period when IIRC they had their “pick of the litter” so to speak, OTOH it’s not like when Bush had his two wars on and they were heavy into stop loss and folks were turning tour after tour after tour. Fog a mirror and you’re in, soldier!
It’s too bad we no longer have a blue collar career path for folks who aren’t college types. Becoming, say, a union journeyman machinist was a well-paid, steady and honorable path. And required plenty of smarts.
Marc
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): My cousin was in the Coast Guard. If it wasn’t for his claustrophobia, he’d probably have stayed in. If ships aren’t a must on his list, I’d (of course) say Air Force. We get ribbed, ’cause we send the officers off to war, but they get paid the big bucks and treat us nice to make sure their birds can get off the ground. ;)
I would recommend you explore what careers he wants to look at – and what job skills will transfer to civilian life, if he doesn’t plan to be career military. Some branches have the same jobs, and even do their training together for those specialties. I was in Biloxi with Navy and Marine classmates for two schools – Army didn’t have that specialty, so they just had an Air Force unit on base (I was on Fort or Camp Something more time than I was on Something Air Force Base). My career field required further schooling beyond my military training (4 year degree) if I wanted to use it in the civilian world. So when I got out, I left that behind too (the college education assistance programs while I was in were a joke – look up VEAP to see what I mean).
NotMax
Used to be you could contact the school administration and request your child’s name not be passed along to recruiters.
Don’t know if that holds true anymore.
Gravenstone
When I was 18, I took and passed the screening test for the Navy nuke program, but opted not to enlist. I was living with my grandparents at the time since I was working in their home town, so that was the address they had on record. The Navy sent my grandmother mail constantly, looking for me, right up until I aged out of the selective service window. Persistent fucks, if not too bright.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Marc:
My late dad (who was drafted into the Army between wars and HATED IT with a passion) always advised people to sign up with the Air Force because they don’t make you sleep on the ground, but my AF veteran coworker says that’s not true.
I could see my nephew getting interested in search-and-rescue type stuff, which is also why I was thinking of the Coast Guard. They do a lot more of that than the Navy does IIRC.
Bill
@NotMax: It’s still true. I just signed one to keep the recruiters away from my 17 year old.
Roger Moore
@ThresherK (GPad):
A warmer room temperature will decrease the rising time. That will probably have a bigger effect on flavor, which depends on a long rising time, than bubble size, which depends on the amount of mixing/kneading. My experience with the no-knead bread is that the rising time is very flexible, so it should be fine if you let it go for the standard rising time even when the room is warm. It’s a very forgiving recipe.
Gravenstone
@Iowa Old Lady: Congratulations on the negative ultrasound! I know too well what a scourge breast cancer is and am glad you’re not facing it.
trollhattan
Canadian vs. Canadian at the Iowa State Fair.
Did the master-debater just use the phrase “Bible-believing Christians”?
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
But enough about Yatsuno…
:)
Germy Shoemangler
It’s been reported that George Miller will be directing Man of Steel 2, the next Superman movie after Batman V Superman. Ben Affleck will be directing The Batman.
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: Congratulations! Good news is good.
Iowa Old Lady
@Gravenstone: @Steeplejack (phone): Thank you. It was a relief, so now I’m ready for the weekend.
redshirt
@Germy Shoemangler: No way! You got a source?
Germy Shoemangler
@redshirt: Screenrant.com
Iowa Old Lady
@satby: I thought I wasn’t worried, but I feel much relieved.
Germy Shoemangler
@Iowa Old Lady: I’m glad you got the good news. Now celebrate!
Amir Khalid
@trollhattan:
For emphasis, surely.
@Germy Shoemangler:
The 300 guy? Oh no.
Germy Shoemangler
@Amir Khalid: George Miller directed Mad Max. Zak Snyder directed Man of Steel and 300.
I never saw 300. Should I avoid it?
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: Whew! Thank FSM!
@Amir Khalid: We’re worried about her again. She responded really well to the medication at first, dropping several pounds and regaining her energy during the first few weeks. We’ve taken her to see the vet weekly for blood tests, and she was improving. He dialed the dosage back in response. But she had a bad reaction to the last med adjustment, so we had to stop the thyroid meds altogether and put her on benedryl. She’s still not quite right. Hopefully they can sort her out. Thanks for asking!
@schrodinger’s cat: Hubby makes the crusts. I do the toppings.
@p.a.: We use a pan with holes in it rather than a stone.
trollhattan
@Germy Shoemangler:
If it’s anything like “Man of Steel”–no.
Amir Khalid
@Germy Shoemangler:
I stand corrected.
I didn’t see 300 either, but I did see its sequel; I would avoid them. They were both written by Frank Miller, whom I had confused with George Miller.
Germy Shoemangler
@trollhattan: If I had directed “Man of Steel” I would have made it a period piece, set in 1938. I would have reduced his powers to only those he had in the first early comic books.
This is why no movie studios are knocking at my door.
sacrablue
@Gindy51: The same thing happened with my son. He only took the ASVAB because a friend convinced him to go with him. The recruiters wouldn’t leave him alone. He got mail that he would read, then correct the grammar and spelling mistakes and mailed them back. He finally invited a Navy recruiter to the house. The poor guy was really working hard to convince my son that the military would offer my son a great life, right up until my husband walked in from work in his uniform (he was active duty Air Force at the time). Recruiter fail!
Tommy
@Germy Shoemangler: I have not seen the movie. On the geeky web sites I go to they were kind of pissed off. That superman destroyed a city in the final sense.
Bill Murray
@Bill: I had a similar experience during my senior year in High School back in the Carter Administration.
Recruiter: Have you ever considered a enlisting in the military?
Me: Well, I don’t think I would be happy doing that. I might be OK with being an officer.
Recruiter: Not everyone has what it takes to be an officer, it’s much better to start out enlisting and then you can go to Officer Candidate School if that would work for you.
Me: Yeah, well, you might think so, but I have an appointment to West Point, so I don’t see much point in enlisting.
Recruiter: (silence) … uh, great. Congratulations … (click)
Sadly, or perhaps happily, I missed out on West Point as my eyes were too near-sighted to get a waiver. But it was nice to shut up the recruiter and get off the call list
redshirt
@Germy Shoemangler: George Miller is 73 years old. And a genius.
Shantanu Saha
It’s the latter, but that’s actually out of the school’s hands. For several years schools have been required by law to give contact info for their students to recruiters, both college and military, unless the students’ families opt out. My school actually gives out opt out forms to all students every fall so that we don’t have to be forced to give out that info. And theyre calling you because your number is what the school has on file for your daughter.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Ha!
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Germy Shoemangler:
Snyder’s movies look good, but he’s a terrible storyteller. He’s basically the new Michael Bay.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Amir Khalid:
To make it even more confusing, for a while there were two different Australian directors named George Miller. But the George Miller they mean is almost certainly the one who did “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
(His oeuvre includes “The Road Warrior,” “Babe,” and “Lorenzo’s Oil,” so he has a pretty wide range.)
Betty Cracker
@Bill: My husband joined the Air Force back when dinosaurs roamed the earth (Reagan was president). He wanted to learn something practical like electronics, but he plays piano like an angel, and one of the AF band guys heard him playing in the rec hall and drafted him into the AF band.
He got to tour all over Europe playing piano at fancy NATO cocktail parties in places like the Rothschild mansion and the royal palace in Oslo. He also played keyboard with band mates on Human League covers for AF troops at godforsaken radar installations in Turkey, Spain, Greece and elsewhere. Never did learn anything practical in the Air Force, but it sure as hell beat rewiring bombers in Texas or whatever…
Tom
Yesterday I finally nailed my recipe for home-cooked split pea soup. The two previous attempts were edible but a bit watery and bland. We made up ten servings worth and froze half the leftovers.
Today was my wife’s bi-monthly salon appointment so our traditional treat is to have Syrian takeout for dinner. The place near us has the best hummus I’ve ever tasted and warm, handmade pitas. Definitely worth having to hang out in the salon waiting area.
Also, I just found out that I passed my faculty orientation course so I should be able to teach in the fall term!
burnspbesq
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
My wife’s cousin’s kid who is a Coast Guard Academy grad did a couple of years in the Caribbean (his first command was one of the first of the new class of cutters that are coming into service). They got shot at plenty by smugglers.
delk
My husband had a doctor’s appointment near our car dealership.
He told me this morning that he was going to look in but NOT buy anything.
Well, of course he texted me later that he traded in our 2013 VW Tiguan for a 2016 model.
Iowa Old Lady
@Tom: Good food and good news. A great combination.
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
I am ridiculously partial to stories like that! Thanks for the link.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
!
redshirt
@Betty Cracker: I love this backstory so much. A military musician’s groovy trip.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
When my dad was at risk of being drafted in the early ’60s, he was told to join the Navy because they had better food. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Marc
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Pararescue might be the place in the AF, if he wants the Air Force version. Make sure you check out the physical requirements and training – it is intense, but of course the people doing it have to be in top form to save others.
Marc
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I put up my share of GP Mediums, and worked out in the field with the Army folks while I was in – but that was due to my specialty in support of the Army. Personnel or Admin types won’t sleep on the ground unless they can’t find their bed. Just depends on the job, and the people you’re working for/with.
low-tech cyclist
Betty, I get the general idea, but how does this work in practice? Do you just swing by the deceased’s house, and ask if they left behind a car that the next-of-kin would like to sell you?
I’m gonna be in the market for a new(er) car before too long, so I’d be interested in how you go about this. Also, I’m down in central FL on a regular basis, so I have the occasional opportunity to take advantage of its somewhat larger population of people with one foot in the grave.
P.S. It’s a good thing I don’t know where you and hubby live, because with those pix of the good things he cooks, my wife and son and I would show up at your door and look pitiful and hungry until one of you let us in. :-)