This is what happens when it is 90 degrees outside and 48 hours later it is 55 and your owner is a cheapskate who refuses to turn the heat on under the premise he is going to lock in the cool air for a hot upcoming day. You snuggle:
Thurston and Rosie were spooning downstairs but by the time I got the camera ready Thurston was all up in my grill.
TenguPhule
Cats and Dogs living together. Its Mass Hysteria!
Mary G
Adorable butt-to-butt position. It cracks me up that you still have CDs. I thought I was late getting rid of them five years ago.
SiubhanDuinne
I’m fascinated with the way your animals cozy up to the CD/DVD pages. This is the second photo you’ve posted in the last couple of days with a Colepet snuggling with discs.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mary G:
I still have hundreds and hundreds of CDs and DVDs. Don’t see any reason to get rid of them.
danielx
Sign of a worthy sibling: when said sib is looking at your recipe for bucatini all’ amatriciana and you mention that you’re substituting diced ham for guanciale (italian salt cured pork jowl)…and he says wait a minute, goes out to his vehicle and returns with about a pound of guanciale. Well done, brother of mine, and nothing short of amazing.
danielx
@SiubhanDuinne:
Hear, hear! Call me an analog person in a digital world, but if there’s some sort of computer disaster it’s going to be a lot easier to recover stuff.
Major Major Major Major
I haven’t had a computer with an optical drive in two years, but I guess the game consoles use them. Although I haven’t bought a plastic copy of a game in about as long. Pity me when the internet goes down, though–no streaming!
We’ve been having some vermin trouble at work. We’re up in the foothills of the coastal range so that can mean mice and snakes. We started putting up pictures of our cats in one trouble spot.
https://imgur.com/a/vebq3
@danielx: optical discs are digital, but I’ll call you that if you want.
Corner Stone
Maddow is to be congratulated. She has been able to find the one guest who can out pre-amble her.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mary G: Not only do I have my CDs and my vinyl, I still have many of the cassettes I recorded over the years. I don’t have a cassette player, but still.
RL 大芒果
get yourself one of those giant attic fans. Suck cold air up into the attic, cool off the whole house then seal it up. With a good one you can cut down on need for AC by at least 1/3…..
Mary G
@SiubhanDuinne: They were taking up too much room and gathering too much dust. I do miss LPs, though, for the cover art and liner notes. Finding out who played what instrument on which piece is almost impossible now, unless there’s some website somewhere I haven’t been able to find.
lurker dean
i can’t believe how big steve looks next to lily. only a few pounds more, and a bus ticket, and steve could be the largest cat in NYC. he’s really something.
http://mashable.com/2016/08/27/largest-cat-in-nyc/#TK3D_TpWjqqQ
??? Martin
@RL 大芒果: Oh god, yes. My wife suggested we get one and I thought sure, what the hell, but it’s amazing. Also clears the smoke out of the house quickly after you catch the oven on fire.
raven
Watching “Band of Brothers” huh, have you seen “The Pacific”?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Snakes will eat the mice, circle of life.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: and in the fall the mountain lions eat the gorillas before they freeze to death. The Stanford band then scares away the mountain lions with their racket.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Corner Stone:
Unpossible.
dmsilev
Speaking of heating and cooling, my new toy is a smart thermostat (an Ecobee3). Even without all the fancy remote access stuff (I.e. security risks…), it’s very nice to have a system that can be told ‘ok, use the thermometer on the main floor during the day, and then switch to the remote in the bedroom upstairs at night’. The remote access stuff lets you do things like tell the system ‘when my phone reports that I’ve left my office in the afternoon, that means I’ll be home soon so start cooling the apartment down a bit. See you in 30 minutes.’
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
Donald Trump isn’t an asshole, he’s a douchebag. Emily Heist Moss and Steven Green* can back me up on that (although Moss’ guide prominently mixes up the widely-accepted differences between a douche and a douchebag).
* “‘The Donald’ is not the richest, the smartest, or the most successful businessman of all time, but the man knew enough about marketing to make it a brand: Trump Tower, Trump Casino, Trump International Golf Course. And he shamelessly plugs his many ventures any chance he gets on his television show The Apprentice. Hell, he even got people to automatically add “the” in front of his first name for affect. It’s crystal clear that this guy’s a fluffy-haired douche bag, though not as clear as Trump-brand water. He is the only douche that needs to be fired.” – 2007
?BillinGlendaleCA
@??? Martin:
Have you and your spouse considered cooking lessons?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: The Stanford band would scare anything away.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Maybe that’s how they heat their place and the oven fire is controlled by the thermostat?
Or maybe it’s a coal-fired oven.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: I’ve got a Honeywell smart thermostat.
John Cole
@Mary G: I am importing my whole library. That’s why there have been cd’s out. I have seven 520 disc sleeves. It’s taking a while.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@John Cole: Is “Fuck the Fucking New York Times” going to join the Balloon Juice Lexicon – or “even the liberal New York Times” to displace “even the liberal New Republic” – anytime soon?
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Does it work well? I’ve been happy with the Ecobee so far (about two weeks); took a bit of trial and error to get it fully tweaked up, but it’s running nicely and as a bonus there’s all sorts of crunchy data for me to play with.
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: my boss told me about an old analog device for temperature control that was a light bulb on a circuit you hooked up to your phone, and when you called the number it would turn on the heat bulb which you’d placed below your thermostat and make the thing think it was hotter than it was and act accordingly. You could buy them in the computer geek zines.
Mary G
@John Cole: I guess so! I only had 2 1/2 of those books and it took me forever. Of course, I was anal about getting the image of the cover right, even if I had to scan it in and photoshop it. And now I have streaming and never listen to my own music anymore. It’s amazing to have access to millions of songs/Amazon Prime Music commercial is uncompensated.
efgoldman
@Mary G:
I still have mine. Anything i download, I burn, on top of the commercial ones
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: So you have to stay on the line while your thermostat does what it does?
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev: it’s on a circuit that you can set to stay on for however long you want it to after you call.
schrodingers_cat
@raven: No. I have BoB twice, what’s the Pacific, an HBO miniseries?
amk
bum to bum is not spooning kid.
efgoldman
@Omnes Omnibus:
Cassettes and vinyl are gone a long time ago, although mrs efg has a few of each
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I have my FIL’s cassette collection of Hindi movie songs from the 40s, 50s and the 60s.
Mnemosyne
@danielx:
I know it’s a cured meat, but that frightens me a bit.
On the other hand, I often make amatriciana with Canadian bacon and canned fire-roasted tomatoes, so I’m probably doing it wrong anyway.
schrodingers_cat
@amk: Apparently they moved, before intrepid photog could get the camera in position.
ETA: BTW there was a troll in one of the earlier threads, who calls himself, manfrommadras.
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: Ah, that makes a bit more sense.
amk
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah, I saw that fraud of a bs. While the original troll is still here. The nerve of that guy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: I’ve only had it about a month, and the heat’s been turned off(pilot off) for about 2 weeks. I don’t think it’s quite a smart as yours, though.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Your boss knew Rube Goldberg?
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
No 8-tracks?
Omnes Omnibus
@amk: Which animals did Cole say were spooning? Which animals are in the picture. Read the full post.
rikyrah
they look so cute together.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Stores still sell vinyl. Cassettes are dead.
@SiubhanDuinne: Not my era.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: There were a couple of times when I thought mine was a bit too smart for its own good. It has a motion sensor which ostensibly can detect if anyone’s home and automatically switch between the Home and Away setpoints. Problem is, it’s twitchy enough that airflow from the fan sets it off, and I run the fan intermittently during the day since it cuts down on the need to fire up the AC compressor. All sorts of false positive ‘someone’s home!’ readings.
And then there were the constant status messages about the need to find and kill Sarah Connor.
Patricia Kayden
@SiubhanDuinne: Me too. Didn’t know that was considered to be passé.
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
Daughter’s best friend since 6th grade, and a percussion star in high school, went to Stanford, joined the infamous marching band. quit halfway thru the first semester because the sexism, misogyny and harassment were more than she could stand. Joined the university orchestra, went on tours with them, had a great time, went to UC San Diego for her masters and doctorate in math, came back to MA to work at in internationally known audio/electronics company.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mary G:
My CDs are mostly classical/classic jazz/pre-1965 Broadway, and in general replicate the cover art and liner notes of their original LPs.
ET
WTOP.COM is reporting that DeMint was ousted by the board over at the Heritage Foundation. Interesting times in the conservative universe. But the media only seems interested in the Democratic arena.
chopper
what the fuck are those? are those CDs? jesus titty-fucking christ, cole.
Mnemosyne
Ever since we moved to this apartment 3+ years ago, Charlotte has decided that she is the Litterbox Police and must stare at the other cats while they do their business. WTF?
efgoldman
@dmsilev:
Seems to me about as necessary as that juicerator thingy everybody’s been slagging on.
You turn it up, you turn it down. How onerous can it be?
I know you and Bill do tech because you can, but still…
efgoldman
@ET:
Any reason given? Not conservative enough? Too whackaloon even for them? Caught with a live boy?
dmsilev
@efgoldman: The first time I was lying in bed, decided that it was hot and stuffy enough to turn the AC up a notch, and did so by grabbing my phone and pushing a button or two rather than dragging myself out of bed and downstairs to the unit, pushing the buttons, and back up to bed, it was worth it.
ET
@ET: when I went to brush my teeth I changed my mind… The media pays a lot of attention to the the conservative universe – at least the political part of it. But I decided what was weird is that a think tank getting so much political press just says much about the think tank. Not that “responsible” media types would call Heritage out.
ET
@efgoldman: it seems that they are alluding to management issues. Guess conservative politicians are as good at running think tanks as they are about running the country. Which is to say, not good at all.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Vinyl is experiencing quite the renaissance among the youth. My son “borrows” some of mine every time he visits.
CD’s, I can only broadly estimate how many we have.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, I go with the “1, 2, 3, many” method of counting records and CDs.
SiubhanDuinne
@ET:
Saw this story several days ago and was kind of surprised that nobody here mentioned it. (Maybe I should have been the person to do so, but I’m kind of shy and retiring….)
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Kitteh Hall monitor is hilarious.
Gin & Tonic
@SiubhanDuinne: You misspelled sly and retired.
efgoldman
@dmsilev:
We live in a smallish ranch, no stairs, and at my age I’m getting up every couple of hours anyway. Our most recent window a/c purchases did come with remotes, which we never use. Worse comes to worse, we pull up or throw off covers; primitive but effective.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
The really annoying part is when she decides she has to tackle them while they’re still digging around in the litter box. Lots of hissing and howling when she does that. So now I have to monitor the cat who’s monitoring the other cats.
mainmata
@Omnes Omnibus: But you can convert tape cassettes to digital if you can play them.
Omnes Omnibus
@mainmata: Which is why I still have them.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: I played with the band during its period of close adult supervision and institutional alcohol probation and found it to be a very rewarding experience. A couple years after that, the restrictions lifted, and I was appalled by what started to happen–I suppose that should be ‘what started to happen again’.
Sab
@schrodingers_cat: ‘Pacific’ is an HBO series about US troops in WWII, sort of Band of Brothers for the other front.@raven: My FIL served in the Pacific in WWII. Never talked about it. His kids really appreciated that finally the Pacific front folks finally got some attention. Also makes you understand why the Australians follow us into every military action.
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
My daughter played all four years in the prizewinning band at UMass. She reported a fair amount of beer consumption (although much less then the campus at large) but nothing like her friend encountered.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: stanford folks still drank they just couldn’t do it in uniform or other official capacity. Which cut down on it quite a lot, as it turns out. The rule of thumb was “if you wonder whether you can drink right now, you can’t.”
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I’m so old, I can remember when the Stanford band got arrested for drunkenly rocking the airplane they were riding in.
The Trojan Marching Band mocked them for it at the halftime battled of the bands.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: Both my daughters wanted nothing to do with band, but had enjoyable and rewarding experiences in their respective orchestras.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: fuck the USC band. They’re terrible.
ETA: they used to censor our halftime shows so we wouldn’t make OJ jokes.
danielx
@Mnemosyne:
It was chilled, he brought it from work in a cooler. I must say the recipe was okay, in the sense that it was edible but I’m not sure I’d make it again.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Boo-hoo. We’re in more movies than you guys ever were.
@danielx:
I confess, I use the ridiculously simple Weight Watchers recipe.
CaseyL
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne:
Oh, so Charlotte is another one of the cats. Not a crazy human neighbor or friend. Good to know, good to know.
Mnemosyne
@CaseyL:
Yes, sorry — like Cole, our cats have human names. Keaton, Annie, and Charlotte.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: didn’t know the measure of a marching band was film appearances. I figured it would be something like number of songs known. Every other band has them beat by knowing more than three.
ETA: seriously literally every other marching band hates USC.
efgoldman
@Gin & Tonic:
My kid loved the UMass band, and the late director. But they were literally a national prize winning organization; in terms of time and effort, they might as well have been a varsity athletic team. She came out of a high school with first class performing organizations. Like me, she did band and orchestra in high school. but when we (each) got to college (I went to music school, she did not) the orchestra was selective for wind and brass players.
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
But those uniforms and shiny helmets were/are beyond stupid.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Haters gonna hate.
@efgoldman:
And the sunglasses. Don’t forget the sunglasses.
ETA: And the horse! We have a horse.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: whatever, you’re the ones who have to listen to that one song with the four droning notes they play 50 times a game.
Omnes Omnibus
Fuck you all. The Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble (with which I have virtually no connection) wins shit loads of awards.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
They only play that when the team is winning, so there were quite a few years there when we heard lots of other songs.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: One time the horse died and we managed to sneak in a joke about replacing a ruined white bronco. We got very booed.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: That would explain why I heard it a lot, our football team sucked balls during my tenure. Really good basketball though, men’s and women’s. Basketball band was way more fun. We had a set drummer, which was good because our drum section sucked. There were tryouts and a 30-person cap so the music was really good, and it was a 2-unit class with the athletic department, concomitant travel rights, per diems etc.
Although my favorite moment was when we got in deep shit for the polygamy joke at the BYU halftime show.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Yeah, you don’t mess with the horse. People get pissed.
I was long gone by the time OJ happened, so I don’t know what was going on. I think they quietly removed his Heisman from display at some point, but I can’t remember.
I was over there a couple of weekends ago for the Festival of Books and it’s really gentrified since I went there 20-cough years ago right around the time of the riots. They even have a cupcake ATM on campus.
CaseyL
@Mnemosyne: So do mine (Jeannie and Oscar) – but your first mention of Charlotte playing litter box monitor didn’t mention her species, so I was.. bemused… for a moment :)
bemused senior
@Major Major Major Major: I wondered about the band that plays at the women’s basketball games, since it seemed relatively sane. We go to the games occasionally, since we’re friends with the coach and get comp tickets. I’m EF Goldman’s age, so when I was a student I don’t think the lsjumb had gotten quite so out of control. I liked the music they played … And the drum major with the plumber’s helper.
Steeplejack
@CaseyL:
That seems pretty clear.