I will never tire of this view. This was my morning walk all week. Back at home now and yard work awaits, but it looks like we could use an open thread before I head outside.
What’s everyone else doing with the rest of their afternoon?
Reader Interactions
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Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Where is that?
Gin & Tonic
Gotta run some errands and spend a little time at the gym. I know, Mr Excitement.
frosty
Rest of the afternoon? Sitting down for awhile.Just finished cleaning the bathroom floor, scrubbing the tub, and hanging new shower curtains. My knees need a break.
Exciting lives we lead. //
frosty
@Gin & Tonic:
LOL yup!
Major Major Major Major
You want excitement? I’m about to take a walk to a friend’s place, where he is attempting to cook tempeh, and then we are going to eat the tempeh.
schrodingers_cat
Made coffee ice cream half an hour ago. Going to eat it now. Any one want to join.
TaMara (HFG)
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Looking at Boston skyline.
Redshift
Went out for my weekly canvassing. Weird day; lots of people refused to talk to me, which has never happened before. Usually if they don’t want to talk, they don’t answer the door.
Now I need to go clear some of the jungle in my back yard. I’m getting solar panels this week! But they need to be able to get to the electrical box outside the house. And the breaker box inside. With the state of my house, both of these will require some work…
efgoldman
@schrodingers_cat: You’ve been holding out on me. Daughter and SIL came back from Amherst yesterday with a bakery box from the new gourmet donut shop!
Meanwhile. four year old granddaughter (and parents) gone back to DC. Very quiet around here. But i get to re-establish my routine.
geg6
Getting ready to do my mise en place for the braised eye of round steaks in a mushroom, onion and red wine sauce I’ll be making for dinner. Parsley and butter noodles on the side and roasted asparagus will round things out with a nice, inexpensive Pinot noir. A nice fall dinner that is inexpensive but seems more upscale. Bought a pumpkin pudding cake for dessert and I brought home from work some vanilla PSU Creamery ice cream to put on top. Yum!
Shana
For god’s sake STOP TALKING ABOUT FOOD!
Steeplejack (phone)
Soothed my political rage with a couple of cooking shows, and now I’m going to have a bit of a lie-down for an hour or so before I face the evening and start thinking about what to have for dinner.
Very nice day here in NoVA: sunny and breezy, high about 67°, first whiff of autumn smell in the air. Same again tomorrow, maybe a skosh warmer.
geg6
@Redshift:
My sister got solar panels last year. She and my BIL love them so much, Elon Musk should hire them for his sales team.
trollhattan
Veep supporting veep, and even if you’ve watched the video before it’s definitely worth a do-over.
Lord, I miss sane people.
PaulWartenberg
Food.
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat: My favorite. I would say that I’d be right over, but I think there’s several thousand miles between us and that’s a tad much even for excellent coffee ice cream.
Major Major Major Major
@Shana: why would we do that?
geg6
@Shana:
It’s the only thing that soothes me since November. I’ve been like Julia Child on a real tear since the election (not that I’m that good).
trollhattan
@TaMara (HFG):
So my San Diego guess was really close.
A Ghost to Most
About to spice up skirt steak to do later on the grill.
Ohio Mom
I am calling an early end to Yom Kippur and tidying the house. Or at least trying to make a little progress toward a tidy house.
It looks like sometime in late October or early November Ohio Dad will have his aortic valve replaced. At least one far-flung relative will be coming to town to help me hold down the fort, and that means I must dig the guest bed out. It is where everything I don’t know where to put, or don’t think I have the time to put away, ends up. So that is target number one in the tidying campaign.
Last night’s sermon focused on evaluating what we hear, including fake news; this morning’s was on our responsibility to making the world a better place.
The whole time I wondered if the Republicans in the congregation were thinking the same things I was: Yes, thank you, I am already discerning in my news sources, and Yes, thank you, I am already involved in making the world a better place. I’m pretty sure they were, else they wouldn’t still be Republicans.
dmsilev
Made the first of my seasonal cake series the other day (this is recipe trials for Thanksgiving). Went with this chocolate plum cake, and it turned out pretty good. An easy cake to make as well, with the one annoyance of straining the plum puree (tedious….). Good thing I read the reviews first though; several people said that there was too much batter for a 9″ pan and to use a 10″ instead. That turned out to be precisely correct; it filled my 10″ springform perfectly.
J R in WV
Well pshaw… the drive shaft didn’t slide onto the gear-box shaft. Durn it !! No mowing, guess I’ll put some beans on to soak.
Wake Forest, undefeated, looking to beat Fl State Seminoles, that’s different. Wonder how Notre Dame will do later on…
tobie
@Shana: I hope you’re having a good fast and all best wishes to you and yours for a healthy new year.
Ohio Mom
@Shana: Yom tov?
If so, sounds like it is too late to wish you an easy fast.
Shell
Been printing out some more postcards of my illustrations and playing with my new paper trimmer. Exciting!
Tamara, don’t forget the duck pics.
Mike in NC
Now that we’re heading into October, maybe the debilitating heat and humidity will finally go away. It was only 80 here today and there was a nice breeze. We were even able to take a long walk in the neighborhood. Getting ready to fire up the grill for cheeseburgers.
jeffreyw
Busy canning 15+ quarts of stewed tomatoes, 2d batch in the pressure canner now.
jeffreyw
@Shell:
germy
A kid walked into a GameStop wearing a Kaepernick jersey. Two NFL players bought him an Xbox.
patrick II
During the Iraq war I read about helicopters prepositioning fuel for tanks by airlifting something called a fuel bladder near the frontline positions where the tanks would be. So, of course & wonder why something like that has not been done for hospitals in Puerto Rico. Not to mention carrying other supplies by helicopter to hospitals and towns in need,
The danger for someone as ignorant. of emergency logistics as I is to oversimplify, but from here it doesn’t appear to be much imagination being used in a situation that requires some different actions than past hurricane responses.
Yutsano
@jeffreyw: Mom is in the process of doing maters, peaches, and pears. Got to eat a peach the other day and it was heaven.
schrodingers_cat
@efgoldman: You should come down for a visit. What gourmet donut shop?
Redshift
@geg6: I’m happy we’re finally getting to do it. I wish we could have had SolarCity; unfortunately Virginia law doesn’t allow their business model, so we’re having to pay up front instead.
Denali
@Schrodinger’s Cat,
Care to share your coffee ice cream recipe? Its my sister’s favorite flavor.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: Does not sound appetizing.
debbie
My time management sucked today, so I won’t be able to make this until tomorrow. I wanted to try this with tomatoes from the farmers market. Time is running out for that.
Went to get a pneumonia shot today, but found my insurance insists I wait until I’m 65. Now I’m trying to clean one handed. Fractured my hand in a fall and everything is taking much longer. Grumble.
rikyrah
@jeffreyw:
What will you do with all those tomatoes?
schrodingers_cat
@Denali: 1 1/2 cup iced coffee ( I had a bottle Caribou Cold coffee)
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
5 tbsp sugar (you can add more sugar but my iced coffee already had about 15g of sugar)
1 tbsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp Dutch process cocoa
Pour it in an assembled ice cream maker and churn for half an hour.
Put in the freezer for half hour
Serve with chopped chocolate.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodingers_cat: it’s about the friends, not the tempeh.
debbie
@germy:
Nice!
Denali
@schrodinger’s cat,
Thanks much!
Hal
Pretty much…
https://medium.com/sportspickle/breaking-colin-kaepernick-announces-he-will-no-longer-protest-after-reading-your-aunts-facebook-63ecf5e8772c
rikyrah
Dolt45 deleted his PR tweets.
Like they haven’t been screenshot all over the world ???
Cheryl Rofer
@rikyrah: Nope. They’re still there. And yeah, screenshot.
Shana
@Major Major Major Major: Because I’m fasting until about 7pm.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Good. I hope he chokes on his cake, knowing they’ll never be forgotten.
Mary G
Love our frontpagers:
schrodingers_cat
Today is also Dasehra or Vijayadashmi the 10th day after Navratri (9 nights). The second most important festival after Diwali. You exchange leaves with friends and family and promise never to fight with them.Students bring out all their books and do a pooja of Saraswati ( Goddess of Knowledge)
Shell
@jeffreyw: Critter cam!
Ohio Mom
@debbie: I did not have to wait until I was 65 because I have asthma. But I had to point this out to my internist.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: You are a good friend.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Shape it in a vessel with a spout so it can served as a tempeh in a teapot.
;)
Montysano
Just took out of town guests to Cathedral Caverns here in north Alabama, then to a righteous roadside BBQ shack out in the country. It’s a perfect 80 degrees and sunny. All in all, a great day.
jeffreyw
@rikyrah:
https://i.imgur.com/WcU0U7V.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/VMCah8t.jpg
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Read he deleted the pro-Strange tweets after Moore won. Barron needs to explain to daddy how the cybers work.
dmsilev
@rikyrah:
Are we sure he understands object permanence? I mean, maybe he thinks that if he can no longer see the Tweets they don’t actually exist and never have existed.
jeffreyw
@rikyrah:
https://i.imgur.com/BL8ZBwD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/16WStMY.jpg
schrodingers_cat
@Shana: Traditional Marathi fasting involves eating what you don’t eat usually, so no wheat or rice but you make a khichri out of tapioca pearls, make tapioca and potato fritters, or if you are really serious you eat uncooked food (mainly fruits and yogurt).
Faral recipes
Faral == special diet
schrodingers_cat
@jeffreyw: How be your kittehs?
Suzanne
My excitement for the afternoon: clean my room, take a shower, get dinner.
jeffreyw
@Shell:
Search for Critter Cam over at W4Dinner, there are many to look at, some of them pretty good.
jeffreyw
@schrodingers_cat: They are good! Homer and Toby not getting along but there have been few of the flying fur fracases lately. Kind of a hostile standoff.
Another Scott
@rikyrah: The tweets attacking the mayor of San Juan are still there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
If I’m at home on the weekend, Charlotte insists on laying on me if I dare sit down for a moment, and if I don’t sit down, she follows me around and meows until I do. Which is why I’m laying down while she lays on my left arm and makes me type one-handed.
NotMax
@debbie
Made a tomato soufflé – once – a long time ago. More dang effort than the end product could ever hope to justify.
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
My doctor is aware of my asthma and treated me the two times I’ve had pneumonia. She also knows my insurance company. It’s just a few months; I’m willing to wait.
gwangung
Putting finishing touches on a stage play I’m writing….based on the real life Chinese pirate queen Ching Sheh.
debbie
@NotMax:
Soufflés are tough; this looks simpler than that.
Ohio Mom
@debbie: But at least there’s no gummint bureaucrat getting between you and your doctor, amirite?
Schlemazel
@schrodingers_cat:
When I worked with an Indian engineer I brought him Diwali sweets. I had read up a little & there was a grocery store that carried them (since out of business). I bought extra to try – hated them! But one se I gave him had gold leaf on it & he seemed impressed with that. He had only been in the US and I think was a little lost with all the hoopla over Christmas that was going on.
I love the idea of a holiday where you promise to fight no more and honor knowledge, which Paul had thought of that while he was making up Christianity
StringOnAStick
Finally feeling better after a nasty cold got me and two other coworkers on Wednesday, so I did a little cooking for the coming week. Now I’m tired, but so much better than yesterday.
Mnemosyne
@Ohio Mom:
Government bureaucrats are worse than private industry bureaucrats because only the government has the power of life and death, or so libertarians tell me. I guess the people who end up dying of pneumonia because a private industry bureaucrat didn’t let them get the pneumonia vaccine aren’t really dead, or didn’t die correctly, or something.
Feebog
Going to see the Doobie Brothers at Safeco Field in Seattle tonight. Early Thanksgiving dinner with family tomorrow.
Doug R
@Feebog: Takin’ it to the streets?
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
They’re not dead, they’re life challenged.
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
Uhyup.
Schlemazel
Did the grocery shopping and also COstco to pick up refreshment for the Gopher Womens Hockey booster club room during the game Sunday. Also made a run to Penzys to restock the spice cabinet. If you have one near you they are giving away $20 worth of stuff if you buy $30. I never buy their blends because I don’t think they are worth it but their regular stuff is worth more than Shillings or McCormick could ever hope to understand. I make curries from their stuff that are so good compared to the tinned stuff it is hard to believe. If you have not had their Vietnamese Cinnamon you do not know what great cinnamon tastes like. It is a real plus that they are actively involved in supporting the antifa and promoting inclusiveness.
StringOnAStick
@Mnemosyne: I had a patient this week tell me she was a libertarian. So, I’m thinking “oh yuck, another selfish idiot” and then she says that government should provide education, health care and defense and that’s it. I decided she was more a deluded idiot after that nonconforming statement of “libertarianism”.
schrodingers_cat
@Schlemazel: I hate most store bought Indian sweets because they are too sweet. I find most desserts too sweet, Indian or American.
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne:
Oh but the market will correct for that! These things would all be fine if only the government allowed the free market to have all the control
Ugh, excuse me, I just threw up a little
FlipYrWhig
@dmsilev:
Let it be known I have raised EXACTLY THIS POSSIBILITY before!
He clearly thinks that if crowds come out to see him it means he is widely adored, and hence that popularity polls are all being manipulated, because he doesn’t understand that numbers that are big might still be smaller than other big numbers. And deep down I attribute that error to his sense that only what he can see exists.
Davebo
@Major Major Major Major: Extra fermentation please!
NotMax
@StringOnAStick
Roads and sewers, who needs ’em?
;)
Schlemazel
@schrodingers_cat:
That was part of it but they were also gritty and had flavors I was not familiar with that I found unpleasant.
I loved the market we bought them at because they were large & had stuff I had never seen at smaller Indian markets. The owner was very helpful in how to use some things, which things to try & which to avoid (as an American but also because it was lower quality). I got to experiment a lot. I think the large inventory is what killed them.
schrodingers_cat
@Schlemazel: Do you remember what it was?
Ohio Mom
@Mnemosyne: My kid is a case study in different types of insurance: he is covered both by private insurance, via Ohio Dad’s job, and Medicaid, because he is disabled — Medicaid picks up what the private insurance doesn’t or won’t cover.
I have never had a hassle with Medicaid — now with the private insurance, I could go on quite a while with one story after another of weeks and weeks spent trying to untangle one mess or the other. Like just about everyone else could.
There’s no one more immune from experiencing cognitve dissonance than a Libertarian, is there?
opiejeanne
My husband is making his third or fourth batch of marinara this season with the excess tomatoes and onions from his garden. He softened the onions in bacon grease first and the smell is driving me nuts. This batch is mostly SunGold cherry tomatoes which we did not plant this year at all; they seem to breed true, unlike other tomatoes that showed up as volunteers. There’s a strange hybrid of (we think) Early Girl and Juliet that look like little torpedoes.
I’m re-reading John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series, halfway through the Human Division right now.
And the cat is nagging us mightily to take her outside. We might do that, before it starts raining in a bit.
trollhattan
HS athletics fundraiser tonight. “It’s for the kids,” even if some alcohol may be involved. Many of the kids at the school can’t even afford uniforms so a good effort to support and we don’t have that pesky “Whaddya want to do about dinner?” conversation. Can’t name them but am told the school has twenty sports. My HS had perhaps eight?
trollhattan
@StringOnAStick:
Any chance she actually wants to move to Liberia?
narya
After finally unpacking and decluttering, I cleaned the refrigerator–as in took out shelves and drawers, and washed stuff. Planning tomorrow’s food, to use up farm share items: watermelon and jicama salad; chard with Indian-ish spices and tomatoes; and kale with coconut curry. That will leave some collards, but they may get thrown in with either the chard or the kale. Also feeding my sourdough starter, which had been sadly neglected. And planning my cheese purchases at the farmers’ market tomorrow. And maybe I’ll make peach jam; haven’t committed to that yet, but it could happen if the peaches look jam-able tomorrow. Tonight it’s catching up on all the things I recorded but haven’t yet watched.
Phylllis
We are in Charleston SC to see Hall & Oates. Getting lightly toasted at the hotel bar in preparation.
scav
Local critter cam (well, eyeball cam) just had three pheasants walk past, daft rabbit sighting earlier today along with Fred the pine squirrel continuing the nut-shuttle. No visuals on the 4 raccoons as of yet. There went Fred again, heading west.
Major Major Major Major
@StringOnAStick: sounds like she doesn’t believe in regulations and stuff. I think of that as sort of ‘soc!ialist libertarianism’, you find it a lot in the Bay Area.
raven
Rocky top you’ll always be, pure horse shit to me. . .
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: I would have thought Bay Area peeps would support environmental regulation.
Schlemazel
@schrodingers_cat:
No, they were all identified in non-English (not sure what language) and I just picked the ones I thought looked nicest.
sacrablue
@geg6: One of the few things I miss from our PSU days is the Creamery, especially the peach Ice cream.
Bill Wright
We did the shopping early.
After a long and pleasant discussion, my 8″ ponytail is now history. Question, of course…can a pair of suit pants that are either a waist-size 36/37 be altered down to 32/31 without the back pockets touching? Yeah, it was a lot of weight loss…maybe 50-60 pounds…I also lost blood pressure meds along the way…
Other items accomplished…
–Read the Fact Checker feed on just how reviled the US (as personified by #45) is in the world–we as a country are pretty much looked on as fucked. The difference between Barry and #45 in the eyes of all but two countries surveyed is bloody well astounding.
–Continued cleaning out the Inbox of the main email account…Down from 17K to 12K…
–Job Search is going well…or as well as can be expected one week in. Will keep this panel posted. Tempted to start blogging on what I see and feel as the search continues.
–Cleaned a couple of pipes, thinking about a couple of new tobacco blends…
–Finding a bit frustrating living in NYC–politically. Don’t have any legislatures representing me to bitch to about #45 and the GOP rapscallions. They all think, act and vote they way I expect them to.
Finally, a plug for one of my favorite authors…okay two.
First, if you have not read any of the Lee Childs’ Jack Reacher novels, you should avail yourselves of one. They are standalone…I’ve read them in order–both published and chronological–and grade them from outstanding to solid. Some I love, some I merely like.
Second–Diane Capri–she has a number of series going; one is THE SEARCH FOR REACHER–she and Lee Childs are authorial friends, he has blessed the series to the extent she is allowed to freely use characters directly from the Reacher books…except Jack Reacher himself, except in the most shadowy way.
On that note, will bid thee and thine a peaceful balance of the weekend…
Bill Wright
@opiejeanne:
Opiejeanne–Love that series. The Ghost Brigades and “my 97 year old dad” have been on my “got to re-read” list for a while now…
Bruuuuce
Just back in from BJs with a load of useful and staple items, including both Legal Seafood and Progresso clam chowders. The former is for the house; the latter comes to work with me.
The wound on the bottom of my foot is healing, thanks to decent diabetes management and a great podiatrist (even if she is a little scalpel-happy :-) ). What was 2.5 cm in diameter is now approximately 0.5 cm, and it’s a decent bet that it will be fully healed by Halloween (knock on wood and all that) after being treated since May.
Almost best of all, on returning from the shopping, I found a parking spot on a Thursday (alt-side street cleaning in NYC) side. With Succot, Shemini Atzeret, and Diwali over the next three Thursdays, cleaning is suspended on those days, so I have three or so weeks of Free Parking. (No getting up and out at oh-gods-30 after or on the morning of a ten-hour overnight shift to move it!).
All in all, a pretty good day, aside from the Red Sox beating the ‘Stros to clinch the division.
bemused
@trollhattan:
Oh man, I miss sane people too and so do millions of Americans. This is why I come here. It’s a safe space even with a few, ahem, kinks.
Jeffro
@Steeplejack (phone):
it was indeed! I convinced the missus to drop me off up at Point of Rocks this morning and pick me up down at White’s Ferry a couple hours later. Hard paddling but so nice to get out and enjoy the day!
A Ghost to Most
@Jeffro: Point of Rocks, an old stomping ground when we lived in Middletown, MD. The leaves must be starting to turn.
jeffreyw
Moar kitteh, moar puppeh. Homer keeps Gabe company while he scans the yard for barkable entities.
A Ghost to Most
@raven:
Smile. CSU thanks Georgia for Mike Bobo.
bemused
@StringOnAStick:
I’m kind of fond of highways, firefighters, libraries, disaster response teams and just a few other things.
JeanneT
I just got home from a long afternoon of voter registration (our local League of Women Voters has a table at the big Art Prize festival in Grand Rapids, MI). I am delighted to find there are NO puddles on the floor from my dog Raleigh, who recently had surgery to remove a parathyroid gland that was causing him to pee too much. Before his surgery, he could only go 90 minutes between pees. Now he can hold it for more than 4 hours: small victories!
Shana
@Bill Wright: I don’t think the alteration can be done unless you take out the side seams, redo the side pockets and put the pants back together.
ETA: congrats on the weight loss, impressive.
Elizabelle
@Redshift: Wow. That’s concerning, about not wanting to talk to you. What do you make of that, and did your fellow canvassers run into the same situation? Is it too many negative ads, exhaustion, frustration? Not good.
@Jeffro: I know just where you were. Perfect day for it. Life on the Potomac.
Elizabelle
@Redshift: I was surprised to see John Warner endorse Gillespie, particularly in a year of Trump. What do you make of that?
JCJ
@efgoldman:
What is your routine? Adjusting the onion on your belt followed by yelling at clouds?
Shana
@Elizabelle: Old school Virginian. He may be a Democrat, but old school Virginia Democrats aren’t all that different from Republicans.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: @Shana: These days, my first thought was, “Oh, the Kochs probably dropped a nice sum into Warner’s grandkids’ trust funds”. Not that they’d need it, and not that it will matter – over half of VA would be like, “Warner who?” But anything for that thin veneer of respectability and moderation…
Jeffro
@A Ghost to Most: It was nice, but everything was still pretty green. I’m going to have to run it again in a month and bring my camera.
Patricia Kayden
@Shana: Warner is a Republican. He has made a practice of endorsing Democrats though so endorsing Gillespie is unusual for him.
StringOnAStick
@Major Major Major Major: She’s an interesting case for sure. Born in the Middle East to American oil workers so her comment that everyone everywhere just wants a quiet life and to provide a decent living for the family made sense to me, then she spouts the odd take on libertarianism and I internally shook my head and decided my initial impression of her being a bit odd was on the mark. I’ve never heard of a libertarian who thinks government should provide education and health care; I didn’t ask her take on roads, fire departments, water, etc. I figured it would be equally heretical yo the libertoonian party line.
sharl
@Hal: Hahaha, excellent link. And the comments…my gawd, the comments. Of the ones I read, this one stands out
As with most quality ragey, spittle-flecked wingnut comments, IT’S the random CAPITALIZATION that adds THAT extra special value.
[A less likely possibility is that this is some of the best parody currently available in online comments, in which case s/he should be put forward as a candidate for a Nobel Prize in Shitposting, and in the meantime should be putting on clinics for the young smart-ass lefties who usually provide my daily irony content. Her comments received 54 “claps” too, though there’s no way of knowing what percentage of those were offered ironically.]
Cheryl Rofer
This bot is tweeting all of “Moby Dick.” This tweet is getting a lot of retweets.
Gelfling 545
Cat is lying on blanket. Dog wants to get under the blanket. Hilarity ensues.
Mary G
Oh brother, he’s at it again
StringOnAStick
@Mary G: Wow is that pathetic. This stuff obviously bothers him, which means we need to inflict more of it on him.
Ruckus
@FlipYrWhig:
Once had someone tell me that there really aren’t several billion people in the world, just photos of a few people, like at a football game and those photos get changed and resent around so it looks like there may be a lot of people. I got the distinct impression that he wasn’t pulling my leg. He had it all worked out, he thought. It is possible that there was illicit drug use in his recent past, something hallucinatory.
FlipYrWhig
@Mary G: Does this motherfucker do anything besides watch TV for mentions of himself all day? Is that the old-timer’s version of Googling your own name?
MoxieM
@TaMara (HFG): Holy Crap! more or less native heah, and, spent many many hours on the waterfront, since good friends lived on their boat. Years ago. And I didn’t even recognize the skyline. Geeeeeze.
Of course I am old enough to remember the restriction that no building be higher than the golden dome of the Bulfinch-designed statehouse. Sigh. You can’t even see that now.
FlipYrWhig
@Ruckus: Was your friend named Donald?
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: Yes. I was surprised. Wondering if the fact the Virginia GOP is so divided made it easier to JWarner to endorse the “moderate” GOP — you will recall that Gillespie almost got pantsed by crazy ass Corey Stewart of Prince William County who was running on a “hell yeah, we’re Confederates” platform, as far as I could see.
But the GOP tends to return to the fold and vote party line.
Northam is a great candidate (the GOP tried to recruit him to their side, maybe 10 years ago). I am wondering how all this mouthbreathing over Southern heritage is going to play out, or if it’s just a sideshow.
Mel
@J R in WV: Are you making soup beans? I’m contemplating soup beans, cornbread with blackberry jam, and also a salad from the first of the fall greens for dinner tomorrow.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sharl: So all the TROOPS and HEALTHCARE WORKERS are white? I’ll let the kid(nurse and veteran) know she’s white now and not Korean.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
Statue-removal issues and player-kneeling issues seem to rile up a base that has no bottom. They seem to be getting to the point of just wanting the family in the cardboard box ‘next door’ to not have an adequate shower rod.
Our voters are different, but I think they’re getting it: we won’t have too many more chances to beat back this RWNJ insanity.
Elizabelle
@Mel: Wow that sounds delish.
But what are “soup beans”? I have never heard that term in my life.
Spanky
@Jeffro: Further downriver it wasn’t real pleasant. I was at the Alexandria Seaport Festival this afternoon, and out on the water there was a 1′-1.5′ chop driven by a stiff north breeze.
Might as well put this here – it’s been a week….
Some of you may remember that we lost our big, 10.5 y.o. cat Archie last month after a short fight with cancer. Well, last Friday I dropped his sister Lily off at the vet for an x-ray and exploration of a mysterious lump. He found a tumor running through her shoulder and into her spine, and thought the best course of action was to say goodbye. All this while she was still under anesthesia on the table. Luckily the Mrs. was able to get there in next to no time, hear the prognosis, and say her goodbyes. All while I was an hour away at work, God damn it.
So. Add Poopyman’s exit last December, and we’ve lost three of our 5 cats to cancer in 9 months. The worst part is watching the other two come to terms with the losses. All we can do is stay close and pet. Almost constantly, really.
Ruckus
@FlipYrWhig:
For that you need to go sit in the corner for a week and think about what you did. After washing your mouth out with soap.
/mom, although she never actually followed through.
And no.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: Most important to me: this is going to be the Virginia governor for the 2020 census.
Also, that you need a Democratic governor/executive branch to counterbalance the gerrymandered GOP state legislature.
Terry McAuliffe has been a superb governor, but the GOP held off Medicaid expansion.
Elizabelle
@Spanky: I am so sorry. I’d forgotten you used to be “poopyman” whatever.
It’s so hard, but you made the right decision. Pets just do not live long enough.
Spanky
@JeanneT: As a guy with an old prostate I wouldn’t count that as a small victory. Just sayin’
Gin & Tonic
I’m seeing rumors on Twitter that his support of the Catalan separatists may be causing Cole’s buddy Assange to wear out his welcome at the Ecuadorean embassy. Wouldn’t it be a crying shame if they threw him and his shit out into the street?
Corner Stone
@Patricia Kayden: John Warner needs to be handed a slip with his tumbrel ride number on it.
There is no excuse for anyone to endorse a Republican.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
You know we could fuck with drumpf quite a bit here, just get someone as crazy as he is to see the entire world through IR glasses and tell him there there are only white people in the world. I mean the non white people would most likely raise quite a ruckus, drumpf declaring that they are all now white. What a setback! To go from being human to the same shade he is.
sharl
@Elizabelle: You and others here have a better feel for VA politics than I do. How important do you think this is for winning over NoVa “business Republicans”?
Steeplejack
@jeffreyw:
The ass/tail wrap is a signature move.
Ruckus
@Spanky:
Met a man about 3 weeks ago who is 49 and had his removed about 4 yrs ago. Bad enough at late 70s. He gets to live with that for a long time.
Corner Stone
This R Gov of PR should be considering what hole he is going to climb into if/when PR residents ever see his commentary praising Trump during this crisis.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: Are we still doing phrasing?
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
I was thinking a laugh fest rather than a crying shame but to each his own. OTOH I might just laugh hard enough and long enough to start crying, so there is that.
Mnemosyne
@Bill Wright:
Congrats on the weight loss! The tricky thing about losing weight is that the most important thing in order to lose weight is to watch your food intake, but the most important thing to maintain it is exercise. You can’t maintain weight loss only by watching what you eat — you have to exercise, too. Good luck!
Jeffro
@Elizabelle:
Ab-so-effin-lutely. That ought to be at least half of Northam’s pitch. VA GOPers are just rabid, crazy people…the exact wrong combination of religiously nuts and Randian psycho.
chris
@Mary G:
khead
Monty Hall dead at 96(!). I hope he didn’t have to choose between “Door number one, Door number two, or Door number three”.
Jeffro
@sharl: He knows he can count on the GOP’s tribalism – their voters will vote for him anyway. This is just more BS “signaling” to the rest of the Commonwealth that Gillespie’s a ‘moderate’. Sure he is – until he gets in office.
FlipYrWhig
@Spanky: Oh that’s a sad thing. Peace and strength to you and yours.
Baud
@Jeffro: I’m rooting for you. I wish the polls were less close.
Steeplejack
@Spanky:
Condolences on your losses.
FlipYrWhig
@Baud: The polls are always close. I feel like if McAulliffe can win, there must be a pretty strong machine. And IIRC Hillary Clinton won by _more_ here in Va. than Obama did.
Mnemosyne
@Spanky:
I’m so sorry. I don’t know why, but right around 10 seems to be the age when cats get cancer. That’s what happened to our late, lamented kitty Natasha. I know you were sorry you couldn’t get there, but I think your wife made the right decision to spare Lily any additional suffering.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
Ha! Sometimes it’s justified. Look at that picture.
Baud
@FlipYrWhig:. That’s good. I remember Mark Warner had a close shave in his reelection in 2014.
sharl
@FlipYrWhig: Here’s hoping you’re right. That earlier comment by Redshift gave me a bit of a chill; hopefully that’s not a widespread phenomenon (I assume he was referring to election canvassing).
FlipYrWhig
@Baud: Well, that’s true, but I think that was the Archie What’s-His-Face vs. Ossoff phenomenon: if the race is under the radar, it sometimes goes better for the challenger than when it’s getting headlines.
Spanky
@Ruckus:
More power to him. Given the usual reasons for having it removed so early, a long life was not in his prognosis.
Mnemosyne
@FlipYrWhig:
Knowing what we know now, I suspect that high profile races give the Russians a chance to spin up their ‘bots in support. Under-the-radar races don’t get that extra boost.
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne: Tantalizing possibility…
Jeffro
@FlipYrWhig: FWIW, the NoVA Dem machine is not going to let this (or 2018, or 2020) slip by.
Elizabelle
@FlipYrWhig: McAuliffe got a huge boost from Principled. Ted. Cruz. shutting down the government. Lot of Feds in NoVA. They were livid.
Lots of negative advertising on the air in Virginia. I don’t blame folks for being sick of it, already.
FlipYrWhig
@Elizabelle: Gillespie is such a milksop. I can’t imagine him galvanizing support in an off-year election, even among Republicans. Cuccinelli was a crazy person but that’s exciting to crazy people. Even McDonnell, even Allen, at least they have some oomph. What is Gillespie? A chinless douchebag.
J R in WV
@Mel:
I did yellow spilt peas, with a couple of roma tomatoes, some onion, an jalapeno, some chicken and curry powder, and yellow rice. White wine, it was good. In chicken broth to soak the peas, then coconut milk to cook things.
J R in WV
@Elizabelle:
Soup beans are dried beans soaked according to directions and cooked in broth, usually with some kind of smoked pork, onions, salt and pepper, they can be pintos, white northerns, navy beans, or even other legumes like split peas or lentils. Lots of broth makes for good soup beans.
Mel
@J R in WV: That sounds wonderful!
We’re using a mix of pintos and cranberry beans for the soup beans. I love the texture of cranberry beans.
@Elizabelle:
Soup beans are so tasty – serious comfort food! The cornbread recipe was my great grandmother’s specialty. It’s buttery and has a hint of honey in it. Every time I taste it, it brings baxk so many good memories!
RedDirtGirl
@Spanky: Oh, I’m so sorry! That is heartbreaking!