Jake thinks you should have another open thread. Could someone please drive to northern Massachusetts and fix Anne Laurie’s internet? Kthnx.
Reader Interactions
100Comments
Comments are closed.
by TaMara| 100 Comments
This post is in: Cat Blogging, Open Threads
Jake thinks you should have another open thread. Could someone please drive to northern Massachusetts and fix Anne Laurie’s internet? Kthnx.
Comments are closed.
AdamK
Today’s recipe from TaMara: Catsup! Ha! I’m so funny.
Steeplejack (phone)
Thank God, thank God Almighty, free at last!
JPL
Did you find a house?
ThresherK (GPad)
Where in northern MA?
raven
Betty must be watching the Gators get their asses kicked.
Ruckus
Didn’t AL say she was going out of town and didn’t know if she would be posting for a few days?
raven
@efgoldman: I bought an external Blue Ray thingy.
beltane
I hope TaMara is getting paid overtime.
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
Vols looking good. My Memphis friend no doubt happy.
Corner Stone
God I hate music threads. All hail Jake!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Ruckus:
Yup. Said she would try, but no guarantees.
TaMara (BHF)
@raven:
@Ruckus:
I think Betty is who went out of town…maybe…oh, what the hell do I know…
House hunting was kind of ugh. I want a small house, I may as well want a gold and diamond encrusted bathroom. And a unicorn.
raven
@TaMara (BHF): Just pullin her chain.
raven
@Steeplejack (phone): Yea they do. We have a murders row stretch with Bama, Vols, Mizzou, KY, Fla, Auburn and Tech. But ask goldie what a terrible schedule we have.
raven
@efgoldman: Damn, I think I have to use Roxio come to think of it.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
That’s why I like apple. Not perfect, not by a fucking long shot but the basics seem to be pretty well covered, something that microshit seems to either always forget to do or doesn’t give a damn. Having had to discuss things with MS “customer service” people in the past I’m going with doesn’t give a damn or let’s see how bad we can fuck with them. Apple’s real problem is that as they “advance” in software, much of the hardware over something like 4-5 yrs old becomes unusable. Planned obsolescence at work. But I’d bet that PC boxes may have arrived there with things like win10. Maybe longer than 4-5 yrs but not much.
Steeplejack (phone)
@TaMara (BHF):
They both went out of town.
raven
Winless Bears against the winless Seahawks is “spectacular”!
JPL
@efgoldman: I can top that. My house is small and is situated on an fenced acre of land. It backs up to twelve acres. Perfect for all kinds of critters.
SoupCatcher
Wow. Washington stops Cal four times at the 1 yard line, and then throws an interception on the very next play.
Elizabelle
That be a cat with ‘tude.
Corner Stone
@TaMara (BHF):
From what I’m seeing they don’t make small houses outside NYC or SFO.
Doug R
@raven: Kam’s back, and I’m going to remember to wear my Sherman t-shirt this Monday.
TaMara (BHF)
@JPL: Now you’re just messing with me. Sigh.
ThresherK
@efgoldman: Well, it’s farther away than I thought. I hope AL isn’t having Win10 problems.
PS VLC is a must, even for less “improved beyond usefulness” versions of Windows.
JPL
@TaMara (BHF): Finch loves it and there are several holes that he has dug that need to be filled in. You have to want to live north of Atlanta though in Tom Price’s district.
ruemara
@TaMara (BHF): You might do better to explore buying the property and finding a small house builder. The general trend is to large house, postage stamp property.
Also, some of you may know that I am (trying) to make a little short. I know people do the GoFundMe thing, but I have no luck with that sort of thing. Instead I’m selling some of my photos & art on SmugMug. Yes, terrible name. Either way, check it out and see if there’s an image you just have to have on your wall or a coffee cup. Every purchase allows me to make a film and submit a script to a contest.
TaMara (BHF)
So you all are saying I should just stick with Win7 and pretend 10 never existed?
Starfish
@TaMara (BHF): All the new buildings are huge in ways that really waste space. There are some older small ones, but there would be a lot of repairs on those.
ThresherK
@TaMara (BHF): Well, I pretended Vista didn’t exist, and it worked swell for me. I was fortunate in not having to support a lot of specialized software that was rewritten specifically for Vista, and YMMV of course.
All I can suggest is the boilerplate of “Wait for MS #.1 version of anything”. And I’ve heard a lot of ill things on Lifehacker and other places about Win10’s fascination with keeping tabs on the user’s computer.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@TaMara (BHF): It’s always safest to not upgrade the OS until you absolutely have to. As long as you don’t need a Win10 feature (like Bitlocker encryption) and as long as they’re updating Win7, there’s little reason to risk an upgrade.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jasmine Bleach
There is no such thing as northern Massachusetts. That state is more of an east/west thing . . . :-)
Another Holocene Human
@ruemara: Depends on your finances because it can be tough to get a loan on a property with no structure on it. Of course, if you can buy it outright and build outright, you’re good.
And there are some really awesome small houses and pre-fab smallish houses out there right now.
jibeaux
Where is TaMara looking to buy? Sometimes I think I want a bigger house — 2 kids, 2 dogs – but really what I want is more efficient layouts of what I have. And a maid also too.
Another Holocene Human
@Jasmine Bleach: Tell that to the people I’ve known who’ve lived in “practically New Hampshire”. :)
TaMara (BHF)
@ThresherK: CenturyLink just this moment sent a big warning email about Win10 and offering a patch for internet access. That was pretty much the nail in the coffin for me. My computer is my business, without it I don’t work, so if it ain’t broke I am sure not going to do something to break it.
benw
@raven: Tech is working hard to get taken off any stretch called murder’s row.
TaMara (BHF)
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Or what you said. :-)
raven
@benw: True dat.
TaMara (BHF)
@Jasmine Bleach: LOL In my mind, northern Mass is anything north of Boston (east or west). As in I lived on the South Shore (because south of Boston).
srv
I feel safer already.
Another Holocene Human
ruemara, your photos are stunning! Question, though, if I order a mug or some such, will it still have the watermark right across the middle?
Aleta
@Another Holocene Human:
And at the same time, 1/3 of New Hampshire is “practically Massachusettes.”
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
Hi Jake! When my husband suggested we name our ex-stray Jake, I wasn’t keen on it because a friend already had a cat named Jake. So we named our little guy the next best thing: Elwood.
Roger Moore
@Corner Stone:
There are small places out there, but they’re typically condos or townhomes, not small single family houses on decent-sized lots. That makes sense in big cities, where the land cost is so much higher than construction costs that it doesn’t make financial sense to put a small house on a big lot, but I’d expect there to be some small houses in a place like Longmont where there’s a decent amount of developable space.
ETA: Oops. I thought TaMara was living in Colorado.
ruemara
@Another Holocene Human: No. Watermarking is to prevent right click image theft. Which is a problem.
benw
Susan Collins (NYT) on Boehner’s resignation. The money quote:
Give it up to Pelosi for sticking the dagger in.
TaMara (BHF)
@Roger Moore: No, you’re right, I am. And that’s exactly what I’m looking for – small on a decent lot. They are here, they don’t come up for sale that often, and earlier this spring, there were 25-45 offers on each one.
Much calmer now, but it’s still a matter of waiting for the right one to come on the market.
divF
@Corner Stone:
“O Jake can you see ?
By the dawn’s early light…”
Tommy
@TaMara (BHF): I moved from a very, very expensive area (about #1 in the nation) to a rural area and after having a small house, bought a 5 bedroom house (I am single/no kids). This “large” house cost me a fraction of what the “small” house cost me.
At the time clearly I thought it was a stellar idea. In hindsight not so much.
Now don’t get me wrong, I work out of my house and often have guests in town. So it is nice to have a home office and a guest bedroom. Another bedroom I call my “Lego” room with all my Legos and toys. I might be 46, but still a kid at heart. Oh and a bedroom just to store shit.
Heck I have a family room, that is about a 1/4 the size of my entire house where you could almost play tennis.
Also a big living room. 2.5 baths.
I say all of this because I have not done anything in the family room, other than fold laundry on the pool table in I don’t know how long. Not sat in my living room in months. Only use one bathroom. Not sure I have used the toilet in one of the full baths in the last six months. The Lego room, cool concept I guess, but not been in it in weeks.
I say all of this because if I had to do it all over again, I would have done it way, way different. GOTTEN A SMALL HOUSE LIKE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR! What a “First World” problem I have, too much space :). Just saying …..
Steeplejack (phone)
@Roger Moore:
I think she does live in Colorado. She used past tense for Boston.
TaMara (BHF)
I want a nap, Bixby wants a walk. Guess who is probably going to win that battle? I’ll check in later. If no one shows up, I have another open thread ready to go. Now with JeffreyW photos.
PurpleGirl
Jake is a cute little kitty.
maya
@TaMara (BHF): I fell for the free Win10 upgrade. What a pain in the rear. It seemed to zero in on any driver weaknesses and I had to go out and get an external mouse to even get into it. Then, I find, it doesn’t have solitaire, or mah jong. What to do while waiting for a download? Decided to go back to Win7 and though I read that there were problems associated with that and that it would take hours to do, I got it back in less than 30 minutes with no problems at all.
I’ve had three tux cats. They always look important, like Jake does. The last one died a few months ago and my pit, Buddy, needs a buddy, so will probably take Buddy along to the shelter where he came from and rent another tux (you can’t own them) before the holidays..
Felonius Monk
@efgoldman:
That’s a feature, not a bug, of Windows 10. Someone didn’t read the advance info. :)
ruemara
Speaking of Tux Cats, here’s one of the yowliest. But he was also a love bug. Rather miss you, you horrible screaming beast. We used to have such fun, playing chase through the house and who can spin on the chair longest. Smudge
Mike in NC
Did the free upgrade from Win7 to Win10 overnight last night. Time consuming but otherwise painless.
Roger Moore
@TaMara (BHF):
I think your best bet is likely to be an older house in an older neighborhood. How far away are you looking, BTW? I remember there being (relatively) a lot of that style of house in Berthoud, but my information is all decades out of date.
FlyingToaster
IIRC, Anne Laurie lives in one of the towns where the ISP choices are between slow-as-molasses, incompetent evil, and pure, unadulterated evil.
Given what’s happened, the only solution I know is to sell and move to a town with the means-well, but still fucks up ISP (like where I live).
The bullshit diagnosis they gave her about it being her router was truly whack. Their router or DNS is hosed, and there’s no timetable for fixing it.
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
……………………
Senator Mark Kirk’s Campaign Pre-Emptively Bashes Chicago Tribune Ahead Of Negative Story
Newspaper stands by reporter the campaign calls “biased.”
Michael Calderone
Senior Media Reporter, The Huffington Post
Sen. Mark Kirk’s campaign aggressively pushed back Friday against allegations the Illinois Republican verbally and physically abused staff, two days before The Chicago Tribune is expected to publish such claims.
In an unusual pre-emptive strike, Kirk’s campaign manager Kevin Artl provided his correspondence with veteran Tribune investigative reporter Todd Lighty, along with supplemental materials, to state political site Capitol Fax. Artl dismissed the anticipated story to Capitol Fax as “terrible journalism written by a biased reporter.”
Tribune editor Gerould Kern said in a statement Friday that Kirk’s campaign and the conduct of his office “are subjects of legitimate inquiry” and the paper “stands fully behind” Lighty.
“We will not comment on unpublished reporting, but we can say that the Kirk campaign has wholly mischaracterized Lighty’s diligence and thoroughness,” Kern said. “Lighty has been direct, open and honest at all times with the Kirk staff in his reporting. He is a meticulous and professional journalist. Good reporters ask tough questions. We will not allow the Kirk campaign to attack unchallenged the professionalism and integrity of Lighty and the Tribune.”
Campaign pushback is nothing new, but typically such rebuttals come after publication. When asked about this pre-emptive strategy, Artl told HuffPost the campaign felt that Tribune’s version of events was “flawed” and therefore “wanted to get our facts out in advance.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mark-kirk-chicago-tribune_560578cde4b0768126fd43e0
rikyrah
@Tommy:
I would love to see the ‘Lego’ room.
Tommy
@Mike in NC: I did it right when it came out. Been doing upgrades since the mid-80s and IMHO this was the most painless I have done. I only had conflicts with three apps (paid, not freeware/shareware), but went to each company’s site and that was taken care of in under ten minutes.
And I say this as a Mac user from 1987 until around 2007 when I went to Windows for my home business more out of price then choice. I was and still am impressed across the board and I don’t normally have much positive to say about Microsoft.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
My favorite yarn store is closing, so I wandered up to pick at the bones. It’s not all sad — the owner got a job as a yarn sales rep that means she doesn’t have to work nights and weekends anymore, so she’s closing down the store. I don’t think her heart has been in it for a while now anyway, but I’m still a little sad.
My 17 YO nephew swears that he wants a bright orange hat, so that’s what I’m making him. He will be wearing it whether he wants to or not.
PurpleGirl
@ruemara: Awww, Smudge is beautiful.
Tommy
@rikyrah: Not interesting really, most of the stuff, the expensive kits are in fishing tackle boxes. All the stuff from my childhood, in plastic bins. I don’t keep much stuff together long after I have completed it.
But I do have around 300 Star Wars figures, AT-AT Walker, Death Star, and many other of the “larger” toys.
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Sorry you’re losing the store. While it wasn’t me favorite yarn store, Smiley’s was a store I went to often enough. They sold overstock and out of production yarn. Yarn was reasonably priced, too. First they went to being open just two days a week and then this past winter it closed completely. They are still selling on-line and will have their hotel sales but that isn’t the same as being able to feel the yarn. From what I can tell, some companies began cutting down on what they produced and hence what they had for overstock/remainder and probably Smiley’s had problems getting loans to cover large purchases. It was a family owned stored and in business since 1946.
The A.C. Moore that was in Queens has also been closed. There are still a number of them on Long Island and in New Jersey but as I don’t drive I can’t get to them. They usually had a nice selection of yarns. (Also a good bead department.)
Tommy
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Knit the dude an orange hat :).
My grandmother could knit stuff like you’d buy in a high-end store. And since she was pretty darn rich, I don’t know if there are different quality of yarns, but sure they were the top of the line. She’d always knit me something as a gift and never once asked me what I wanted. The things were just not what a kid in the 70s would wear. So they got worn once or twice, when I was forced to put them on, when she was in town, and tell her how much I liked them.
If she would have just taken requests of what I wanted, I would have worn them out. Bet your nephew will as well. With the younger and even the older hipster crowd, handmade shit with yarn is kind of pretty darn hip!
rikyrah
The cat picture creeps me out. It’s the eyes..scary…
PaulW
the cover artist for my next book got the cover done. Now I need to finish editing the damn novel.
PurpleGirl
@Tommy: I crocheted a few things for my nieces when they were babies but then stopped after I saw that my sister was taking care of them. And she didn’t want to discuss how she should wash them or store them. She washed everything in hot water; even orlon doesn’t do well in hot water. I wasn’t concerned so much about the cost of the yarn but the time it took to make things.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Which one? Have you tried Skein in Pasadena?
PurpleGirl
@PurpleGirl: “after I saw that my sister WASN’T taking care of them”
Tommy
@PurpleGirl: Well after I posted my comment my first thought was my grandmother’s time, not the cost of the yarn. I can’t wrap my mind around the time she must have spent on those gosh darn butt ugly sweaters :)!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got a Neiman Marcus knit sweater from a secondhand store in the mid-90s. It might date to mid-70s. It is all white, something you might not think is that “cool.” But the collar. The cuffs. How it was made (would you call it the stitch?), it just rocks and I’ve never found anything like it since. I’ve worn the shit out of it and still do!
Heck this lady I dated years ago knitted.
About a decade ago I started to shave my head when I started to go bald. I never realized how much hair keeps your head warm until I had none. I’ve searched high and low for a good knit hat. Found a few.
What that lady knitted for me, when I told her exactly what I wanted, is as good if not better then my $45 REI cap that is my favorite and go to head attire when it starts to get cold.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Tommy:
Left to myself, I would probably made the hat in black or dark blue, but if he says he wants bright orange, that’s what he gets. It’s a lot easier to pick patterns that kids will like these days because of the internet.
@PurpleGirl:
I usually give people a care tag with the gift and then hope they care for it right. For kids and babies, I try to stick with yarns that are machine washable since nobody wants to hand-wash and re-block a sweater the baby is just going to puke on again anyway.
I may be part of the problem, because I mostly buy online. It saves me a lot of trouble when it comes to finding the colors I want. I’ve also been on a yarn diet for the past few years, because I’m a slow knitter and have reached the SABLE point (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy).
Seth
What an absolutely magnificent beast!
ET
That cat does have an expression.
different-church-lady
Anne Laurie has Verizon. There is no fixing that.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Roger Moore:
It’s Unwind on Hollywood Way. Skein is pretty good, but if I’m in Pasadena, I usually end up at Abuelita’s. They used to be in South Pas but have now moved onto Colorado across the street from Vroman’s.
I need to drag G down to The Last Bookstore in DTLA, because they also have a yarn store on the second floor, so we can both enjoy ourselves. ?
Tommy
@Mnemosyne (tablet): See but everybody else has black or dark blue. Kids, and at 46 with no kids I am no expert on kids, but they want something unique. Go to Target, or REI, LL Bean, Macy’s, Sears, you name it. Everything is pretty much the same.
If you want something different, and you can buy something different of course, you have to pay an arm and a leg. A bright orange would not be my first call for a color, but I’d not go with black or dark blue if you were doing something for me I can assure you of that :).
jibeaux
Y’all knitters friend me or whatnot on ravelry, under this nym. I’m not active on it other than finding patterns, but I have intentions. Just finished a cute sweater for my niece and 3/4 done with some damned socks for my mom.
SoupCatcher
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
You could always do a Jayne Cobb from Firefly orange hat.
raven
@Tommy: The “Human Juke Box” of Southern University was here today!
Tommy
@raven: Hey I like me the “Golden Band From Tigerland” but Southern, well I hope you got to see them perform. When I was at LSU they were trying to merge similar classes at the grad level on the LSU/Southern campus.
We only had one lady come from Southern come over for a class I was in but went with her to a game and my gosh, my god, their band fucking rocks. If they had a fraction of a of a budget of say an Ohio State’s band where you see all they do at halftime, I can’t wrap my mind around what they’d do!
raven
@Tommy:
It was really great!
Bex
For everyone who likes Tuxie cat happy ending stories…
https://youtu.be/tMz/YqXmsasc
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@SoupCatcher:
I made one of those for my husband several years ago, but it’s too warm for California. I have a couple of patterns to make mini versions suitable for hanging on the holiday tree, but I haven’t gotten around to them yet. I have a HUGE (self-imposed) backlog right now, unfortunately.
Tommy
@raven: I wasn’t aware of that ….
My Tigers won but they looked terrible beside one player I think we both know the name of.
If we play like McNeese State or SE Louisiana the score is out of sync. But many times, like today, we have a full, large DI school that we should blow out and we play to the level of the competition and can’t put a team away. It is painful as a fan to watch.
Even as an LSU “homer” if the teams at like #9-#12 play well I could see myself dropping LSU down in the rankings. Their performance today was subpar, if I am polite.
ThresherK
@FlyingToaster: Wait, she has three ISPs to choose from?
Luxury!
(Yes, I’m gliding over your descriptions, because until proved otherwise they all seem to be like that.)
BillinGlendaleCA
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Though if you wait over a year, you’ll have to pay for the upgrade.
ThresherK
@BillinGlendaleCA: Can’t one sign for it in advance, or download an ISO and license thingy before then?
(I can, however, see MS not making these things possible.)
SoupCatcher
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Awesome! And, yeah, imagining trying to wear one of those on a typical California day was the main reason I didn’t buy one of those hats (back before Fox cracked down on the knitters).
PurpleGirl
@SoupCatcher: TinyKittens (a kitten foster parent in Langley, BC) had a litter with the momcat named Firefly and the babies named for the different characters. One of the cam watchers knitted all the kitties a Janye Cobb hat to take with them when adopted.
SoupCatcher
@PurpleGirl: Awwwww =) Too cool!
henqiguai
@Jasmine Bleach (#37):
Hey! *North* central Massachusetts, here. D@mmit.
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Sable point — huh. I’ve reached that point with my stash too.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@SoupCatcher:
They can crack down on selling the finished hats, but there’s nothing they can do about the patterns — as I understand it, it’s a weird loophole in copyright law. You can’t call it a “Jayne Cobb hat,” but there’s nothing Fox can do to prevent you from putting up a free pattern that replicates the hat.
PurpleGirl
@jibeaux: Hi, I’m on Ravelry too, although I don’t open it very much. I’m WoodsideCrocheter.
jibeaux
@PurpleGirl: cool, I added you.
redshirt
Macs are entirely overated, and their marketing (“It just works”) makes me even more incensed.
Make mine Microsoft. WindowsMe/Vista/8 excepted. And 10 can cool its jets till SP1 comes out.
redshirt
Also, Northern Mass includes Southern New Hampshire and Southern Maine to approximately Kennebunk.