Just wanted to let you know there will be a Writing Group post this Sunday. Get your pens ready.
Last week a couple of people asked me for an update on the ducks. They are still here. I’m in foster mode, so not too attached. But they did acquire names. It’s difficult when you have a ten year old for the week to NOT name them.
Mabel (the Rouen – brown with iridescent green markings) is recovering nicely. She was quite weak and wasn’t eating well for the first few days. Now she eats all the time and keeps trying to steal Bailey’s dinner. I’ve addressed that, so poor Bailey can eat in peace. The Blue Swedish is Maddie and she’s hell on wheels. And keeps an eye on me.
That’s not creepy at all, right? They are clearly hand raised – they eat out of my hand, they come running when I go outside and are unfazed by cats, dogs or 10 year olds. Funny thing, yesterday I was sitting on the steps, feeding them when Mabel mistook my nicely painted toenail for a snack. We both got a surprise.
I suppose none of us will be surprised if this turns out to be a foster fail. But I’m not there yet.
How about a happy news, politics free open thread? Have any good news to share?
ETA: Thanks to dmsilev for this
JPL
lol Once you name them, they are yours. It’s the way it works.
schrodingers_cat
I got a nice dinner table with 6 chairs with an inlaid design and turned legs for $100. It does have minor water damage but it is gorgeous.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
Duckies! Ever tried petting them?
Omnes Omnibus
The Pack is looking pretty decent in its first preseason game. All caveats apply.
Adam L Silverman
Alright, I’ve rescheduled mine to post at 11:30 PM.
TaMara (HFG)
@schrodingers_cat: Oooo, that sounds like quite the find!
Mnemosyne
Yay! Thank you! I was afraid the next one would fall when we’ll be out of town all day drinking wine the following weekend, and I need a safe space to whine about my writing insecurities right now. ?
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I have no idea what you just said. Something to do with sports, right?
satby
Gotta say Tamara, they look like keepers ? I bet ducks are fun.
It’s great they’re both doing so well.
MomSense
Great names. I finished the first draft of a children’s story last night and sent it out to a few people to read. Today I did a few revisions and started a new story. I don’t know if anything will come of this but I am enjoying the process.
I’m considering taking a week off from all internet/email/ social media to see how I feel.
TaMara (HFG)
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: They love, love, love, being scritched just under the neck and their beaks rubbed.
satby
@schrodingers_cat: His Green Bay Packers football team looks good.
lollipopguild
Be kind to your web footed friends because a duck may be somebody’s mother……
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
Is it something you can fix yourself with some denatured alcohol and cheesecloth?
TaMara (HFG)
@Adam L Silverman: Thank you.
Mnemosyne
Our youngest cat Charlotte is a foster fail. I knew the first night we had her and her sister, but it took G longer to come around.
She went through several names before we settled on Charlotte. Maybe that’s why she’s an anxious cat. ?
Good news: I bought our Amtrak tickets so we can do a day trip of the Urban Wine Trail in Santa Barbara and not have to drive home afterwards.
(Urban Wine Trail = local wineries that have storefront tasting rooms in downtown SB.)
Major Major Major Major
Aww, you still have the ducks! Too cute. Good luck not keeping them, but the worst case scenario is you end up with two ducks, which isn’t really that bad now is it?
Yarrow
The video in this tweet has been making me laugh all week. Even the sheep in New Zealand love rugby!
West of the Rockies (been a while)
Thanks, TaMara! I’ll be there Sunday morning.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@TaMara (HFG):
I once walked up to some Canadian Geese and was shocked that they didn’t run away. I was amazed. I guess they were used to people.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, and west of New England. We are a big country.
TaMara (HFG)
@Mnemosyne: We have so many breweries in our little town now, we have a trolley tour – a converted trolley takes a group to all the tasting rooms. It’s called the BrewHop Trolley. Wine country and the train sounds like more fun, though.
Mnemosyne
The saddest news that I will allow myself in this thread: the tall ship that Ruckus and I wanted to try at the Tall Ships Festival next month had to cancel, so we’ll be sailing on the Californian instead. It’s the official Tall Ship of the state of California and Ruckus says it should be a similarly smooth ride, weather permitting, so I’ll survive. Now I have to start my seasickness prep.
TaMara (HFG)
@Major Major Major Major: As Betty C can attest to, I was thinking about chickens for next spring. I look at the ducks and think, I really don’t like chickens and I LOVED my first duck, Liam. So, yeah, that’s my thinking, too.
Major Major Major Major
The World Dog Surfing Championships were in my neck of the woods this week.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: That looks like great fun.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Why so snippy? I would love to drive across country, from the east coast to the west someday. And fwiw I have been to California and Colorado. I love to travel, just haven’t been able to do much travel for leisure in the past 10 years or so.
japa21
@Omnes Omnibus: Glad to hear that. Looks like they may have an actual punt returner this year. Of course, as you say, caveats apply.
ETA: Meanwhile the Brewers have gone to hell in a hand-basket.
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (HFG):
I found the link. We’ve done a few tasting rooms before, but we always had to drive home, so we couldn’t try as much as we wanted. The location means we just have to stagger across the street to the Amtrak station and have 2 hours to sober up before we get to our station.
Last time we went, we ended up getting several bottles of wine from Area 5.1, which is alien-themed and did some really tasty blends.
Miss Bianca
@JPL: Ain’t it the truth!
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: I have no idea. The water damage is not major, I would say less than 10% of the surface area.
?BillinGlendaleCA
We have a bird nest in the orange tree out front, saw one adult and a small one.
I’m planning on a trip up to the mountains north of here to try some Milky Way shots next week after the moon starts setting later in the day.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: The Packers? That’s…football. right?
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Do you have my email address and any interest in seeing tall ships in Dana Point in September? It’s $70 to sail on one, but only $14 to tour them.
Major Major Major Major
@Miss Bianca: sometimes it’s best to just let boys enjoy their games without teasing them too much.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
@Miss Bianca:
Because I’m mean, I say things to sportsball fans like, “When is the quarterback going to kick a home run?”
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Is she the bossy and neurotic one?
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Is that mean?
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: I had no intention of coming off as snippy. You just never, to my knowledge, mentioned being west of Philly.
Doc Sardonic
@schrodingers_cat: Water damage is relatively easy to repair depending on the finish used on the piece and the type of staining or discoloration. $100 sounds like a great find.
Miss Bianca
@Major Major Major Major: ah, it’s the spoilsport of the world you are!
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: Yes. It is.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: When in September? Late August and early September is birthday season here(madame and the kid).
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
It might work in your case. It sounds like you found a beautiful dining set.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t mention everything I do on Balloon Juice.
ETA: I actually do remember mentioning my SF trip, even had a meetup with one Juicer. And srv of all people gave me a lot of good tips.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Of course! She did something while we were away that got Keaton to start hissing at her again. And I suspect she was the reason for the Poop Incident.
(I’m no longer allowed to discuss the Poop Incident here, but you don’t really want the details anyway.)
normal liberal
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
In my neck of the woods the geese are downright aggressive. Last night as I left the grocery store a flock decided to cross the street, and a couple of the geese came to a dead stop in the middle and stared at me. A clear provocation-“So, you want to drive home? Not this way, bitch.”
God help you if you’re on foot.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: J.M. Synge ref?
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
We’re going on Saturday 9/9. Still working out the exact departure time.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: From a very pregnant lady on CL. Her husband even delivered the set!
Mnemosyne
@normal liberal:
Geese are mean. Especially Canada geese. One of the local botanical gardens had to put up signs begging people not to approach the geese who have been nesting in the garden. They definitely try to emulate their dinosaur ancestors.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: That’s fair. I am not trying to be snippy with you. Can you please assume that I am not trying to start a fight?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Mean? The fuckers are vicious. Eat them before they peck us to death.
Miss Bianca
@schrodingers_cat: is it weird that I almost miss srv? It is weird, isn’t it?
efgoldman
Plimoth Plantation, ~25 years ago. Took ~10-11 year old daughter and same age best friend (daughter ended up a history major). We were walking down the main street, with all kinds of re-enactors doing their thing. Just as we approached a woman sitting in front of “her house”, she picked a duck up off the street and wrung its neck in front of the kids. Big gasps and “yeewww” moment. Obviously not a pet.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Swans are vicious. Geese are just mean.
One of my favorite short stories by PG Wodehouse involves two characters getting treed by a vicious swan.
seaboogie
@TaMara (HFG): I lived on the Doral Silver golf course in Miami in ’01 and a family of Muscovy ducks adopted me (may have had something to do with me buying 10lb bags of cracked feed corn to offer them).
Over the course of several weeks there was some attrition in the number of ducklings, but they were such a joy. Kept my Golden inside the lanai during feeding time, and I loved the feeling of the ducklings’ soft little beaks in my palm as they ate out of my hand.
Sometimes I’d go out my front door and the whole flock would come waddling up my walk-way…ducks are definitely a lot of fun!
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: It is. But it is probably a subconscious wish for the days when pure trolls were our biggest annoyance.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Alack, more Patrick O’Brian, than J M Synge, I’m afraid.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Will do. Time to hit the sack. Good night.
dmsilev
There’s an old Far Side cartoon that seems appropriate here. Caption: “Duckalookaphobia: The fear that somehow, somewhere, a duck is staring at you”
Quinerly
“There’s something really, really wrong with this president.” Former Republican Senator Gordon Humphrey.
No shit.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, Lord! I fear you may be right. How perspicacious of you!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: They have signs at the Huntington warning about the geese.
The 9th is after b-day season(8/29-9/3), got a website or anything about it?
Mnemosyne
@Quinerly:
Hey, now — this is our place for duck, sports, and wine talk. No politics.
?
Quinerly
@Miss Bianca:
What’s weird is it is beyond obvious that Corner Stone has a life without us.?
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: I drink and I know things.
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne: When my brother and I were kids, he was maybe 6 or so, we were somewhere that was home to some swan families. We were feeding the cygnets until the parents thought that we were getting too close, and one of them puffed up and stretched his (I think) neck out; was almost the same height as my brother was and it was pretty intimidating (as was the bird’s intent, no doubt).
Omnes Omnibus
@Quinerly: FFS.
Quinerly
@Mnemosyne:
Oops. I drink beer. Thought it was the “snippy” thread.
seaboogie
@Mnemosyne: My Dad and step-Mom had a big pond in their yard in SW Ontario that had transient geese, and pet Swan named named Elvis. They spent a lot of time looking for a female Swan for Elvis (to be named Priscilla, natch) without success.
One day Elvis flew away, and there were many Elvis “sightings” reported in the following weeks, but he never did return – true to his name in that way.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yes, the Huntington is the place I was referring to. I assumed Goku wouldn’t know what it was.
Tall Ships website. Gmail me at Mnemosyne dot Muse for additional details.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: My favorite is the sign that the LA County Arboretum uses: “For your safety, do not feed or approach peacocks, geese, ducks, turtles, squirrels, bobcats, or coyotes”.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Quinerly: Either that or he’s drunk in a gutter.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: I liked this one from just outside the Arboretum.
Mnemosyne
@Quinerly:
Beer-wine hybrids are a thing!
There probably will also be some beer drinking on our Urban Wine Trail wanderings since Figueroa Mountain has a beer tasting room in the same neighborhood. I’m not a fan of beer, but G likes it.
What I really want to do is go to the new cider/mead place in Carpenteria called the Apiary one of these days, but it wouldn’t require a full day and a train trip.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: in vino veritas, old chap?
GregB
@Quinerly:
Old Gordon is no RINO either. He was at the pretty far right edge of the NH GOP back in the 80’s.
Mnemosyne
@seaboogie:
We lived on a lake when I was in high school and there was an avian ménage a trois made up of two Canada geese and a white duck that was apparently an escapee from a more domestic life. After the goslings hatched, they all went for swims together: Mama Goose, White Duck, goslings, and Papa Goose.
When the geese headed back north for the winter, the duck went with them.
TaMara (HFG)
@dmsilev: OMG, I remember that. It’s now added to the post.
efgoldman
@GregB:
He (along with the Loebs, who owned the Manchester Union Leader newspaper) were RWNJs long before anybody heard of the TeaHadis.
ArchTeryx
@Mnemosyne: That’s very cute and extremely unusual – Canada Geese get really territorial around their goslings. They must have accepted the white duck as just a funny-looking goose that was happy to flock with them. Once they got over the hardwired territoriality, they probably welcomed the extra pair of eyes on sentry duty!
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, I get the feeling that Arcadia regards its flock as somewhat of a mixed blessing.
Where my parents and brother live, there’s been a resurgence of wild turkeys over the last ten or so years. My parents had a family of them living somewhere near their back yard. My mom said it was really cute when the 8 or so chicks were small, but once they grew into the juvenile stage it stopped being cute and started being a bit intimidating.
Mnemosyne
@ArchTeryx:
If I remember correctly (and we’re talking about an event that’s older than Goku), the duck was firmly established as part of the family before the eggs were even laid, so that probably helped.
TriassicSands
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
I don’t know if they are born that way, but Canada geese get used to people very easily and, as is pointed out by normal liberal above, they are often very aggressive. Challenge one and you may receive a painful peck.
It is common to call them Canadian geese, but they are actually Canada geese.
scav
In theory Swans, but I don’t know if they’d be best for adoption.
Debbie(aussie)
Just read about Mrs Imm.?to Immanitize(?) I am so sorry. I send lots of love. You and your family are in my thoughts. Fuck cancer!
efgoldman
@TriassicSands:
They
are
actually
vermin
That is all
Major Major Major Major
Some jagoffs are organizing anti-google marches.
Yarrow
In the UK all swans are owned by the Queen. There’s also an annual swan census.
Quinerly
@GregB:
Yep. Thought it was interesting given who he was. Hope you aren’t scolded for your comment.? Apparently, open thread doesn’t mean what I always thought it meant. Live and learn.?
Quinerly
@efgoldman:
Yep.
dmsilev
@Yarrow:
It never goes well; swans are really bad at inking in those little bubbles on the forms.
Yarrow
@dmsilev: Well, they do have a Royal Swan Warden to keep all the swans and cygnets in line.
Juice Box
Mmmm. Duck eggs.
Major Major Major Major
Absurd story about academic who made a DNA sample that can hack a DNA sequencer, for those who might enjoy this sort of thing.
Mnemosyne
@Quinerly:
Don’t make me turn this car around, young lady! ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Oh, in support of the fake PhD. Google is anti-free speech; it’s a private company they can make their own rules. Morons.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Psst, Quinerly’s older than you.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
She’s not going to thank you for reminding us all of that. ?
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Psst, that’s a bad road go down with the wimmins and shit. Just saying. Geezer.
KS in MA
@Yarrow: Love it!
Yarrow
@KS in MA: Glad you like it. :) Bruce is very good, isn’t he?
KS in MA
@Yarrow: He’s the best rugby-playing sheep I ever saw! :)
Yarrow
@KS in MA: Me too! Although I believe he’s the only one I’ve ever seen. Heh. He’s very enthusiastic. I love how he chases her when she’s got the ball. “Throw it to me again!” LOL.
TKinNC
@TaMara (HFG): Yay! Ducks are fun.
Murmeltier