Via dependable garden commentor Ozark Hillbilly, the Guardian reports:
A worried resident in Germany alerted police to what he thought was a second world war bomb in his garden. Officers found … a particularly large zucchini…
They said in a statement Friday that officers determined “the object, which really did look very like a bomb” was actually a 40cm (nearly 16in) courgette.
The offending vegetable, which was very dark in color, weighed about 5kg (11lbs). Police believe someone threw it over a hedge into the garden…
“Gifting” the unwary a zucchini of that size has to be some kind of violation of the Geneva Convention, amirite?
***********
As of yesterday, we still hadn’t gotten a killing frost, even though it’s New England and it’s November. But the tv weather people predict ‘possible wintery mix’ by next weekend, so presumably we’ll get back to what-passes-for-normal soon…
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Speaking of bombs…
These are the “Antifa supersoldiers” the alt right was scared of
via @aletweetsnews pic.twitter.com/7bNEwBtny4
— jordan (@JordanUhl) November 4, 2017
Scores of protesters gathered on Boston Common late Saturday afternoon to protest President Trump. https://t.co/zuKV2BzWk4 pic.twitter.com/qGWHkk9yac
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) November 5, 2017
Scores! The guy who couldn’t attract more than a dozen or so allies to his “Free Speech” rally last summer is hella jealous:
… The rally was intended to kick off an upswell of political pressure to force the removal of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. On Saturday, the crowd started small but eventually grew to nearly 100 people. Some counterprotesters arrived, and several arguments broke out but ended without arrests. Speakers ignored the skirmishes.
John Medlar, who organized a controversial Free Speech rally in Boston in August that many criticized for being a platform for racists, attended Saturday night’s rally. He noted that unlike his event, which was heavily policed and effectively drowned out by tens of thousands of counterprotesters, Saturday’s rally was allowed to proceed unfettered.
“When we come into town and have one of our own rallies, everyone freaks out and they feel they have to separate everybody,” he said…
How do you think the “Resist Fascism” dudes feel? All the terror hype on Fox News, and they couldn’t even draw enough maddened counterprotesters to get any decent b-roll!
satby
Gah! Was pooped, so went to bed early, woke up at 3, which my brain thought was 4, and now it doesn’t make sense to go back to bed. At least with fall back it’ll be light enough by 7 for me to do more garden cleanup before I get ready to leave for work. And plant the two tiny huckleberry bushes I bought on sale, because I’m insane.
maryQ
The antifa protests were so poorly attended because everyone else was at the all-day Carole King concert.
Amir Khalid
I’m reminded of Sascha Baron Cohen’s weird ad-lib in the Les Miz movie: “Farewell, Courgette!”
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I woke up at 2:25 (1:25) and couldn’t fall back asleep. Figures my insomnia would kick into gear on the longest night of the year.
satby
We had one frost, but it only nailed the top layer of vegetation. Most of the tomato vines were still growing and still trying to finish off the dozens of small green ones still on them. The squirrels and other critters got a banquet from the vine detritus I threw into the vacant lot next door and I planted a lot of mixed spring bulbs in the soil remaining after I removed the decomposed box remains. Put weed inhibitor on the whole thing, so we’ll see how it goes next spring.
I decided that because of the moles and squirrels I’m planting the majority of my tulips in large pots that can overwinter in the garage and then get pulled out in the spring to bloom. The daffodils all went into the ground to naturalize, nothing eats them.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I guess it helped me. Going to games always kicks my ass and then we came home to watch the Canes smother the Hokies so it was 11 before I got down (10 on the clock) . So being able to sleep until 5:30 ain’t bad.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: I feels ya. It wouldn’t matter if I didn’t have to work, because I could just take a nap. Oh well.
Edited to add, don’t want to nap now, as soon as it’s light I need to finish my garden stuff, because way colder air is heading my way.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Just finished with my Hackintosh laptop, dual boots MacOS and Windoze.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: do you use the Mac mostly for photo editing?
ThresherK
You are right about excess zucchini. Kudos for trying to hide it in another’s garden without actually stepping foot on the property.
satby
@ThresherK: an 11 lb zucchini might have brained anyone in the way when it was tossed in the yard. It’s a clear case of attempted homicide ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: No, I only use a photostacking program on the Mac. Lightroom and Photoshop work great on a Windows machine(and they’re much, much cheaper).
(A Hackintosh is MacOS on a non-Apple computer. In this laptop’s case, the computer is a used HP Elitebook 8470p.)
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA:I’m in the middle of an “Clean up your photo storage in Lightroom on the mac” on Lynda. I don’t know if I’m going to succeed because my shit is scattered on a bunch of hard drives. I also you Photos on the mac and I know the wisdom is to only use one program and one drive.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I knew what you meant by Hackintosh, I have an old Lenovo I keep wanting to do something with but I have neither time nor the skills anymore, honestly. I’ll probably get around to recycling it sometime.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Lightroom works well across drives, but you have to do keywording to really find stuff fast. I organize my pictures by year and then date; but if I really want to find anything I need to use keywords.
ETA: Right now everything is on 6TB drive.
Baud
Make zucchinis, not war.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yea, I have pretty well fucked that up and now am trying to see what the best way to consolidate is.
OzarkHillbilly
Here in the hills and hollers we’ve already had a couple hard frosts, even had a blooming of frost flowers along Big Indian Creek. Our autumn colors are much brighter than we have any right to expect after the long, hot, dry summer we had. The color of most of my dogwoods is muted to say the least (pretty sure I’m gonna lose more than few) but the maples are rather spectacular.
Saw my 2nd and 3rd eagles of the winter last week while driving home. I had just turned onto Indian Creek Rd, when the first one took off out of a large sycamore growing there. It was obviously an eagle from the white of it’s tail tho mottled with brown so I figured it was a not fully mature 2 yr old. No sooner had this thought entered my head than a 2nd eagle came flying over my truck and dove into the first with it’s talons fully extended. The 1st dove and swerved and then they entered another treeline and I lost them. About 3 secs worth of a National Geographic special, but I got to be an eyewitness to it. Pretty cool.
My oldest son is coming out today with his new wife and my baby girl (8 yo now, but she’ll always be my baby girl). He’ll get to help me remove the window ac units and then we’ll probably finish cutting up an old downed oak along the power line cut. It has a rather sickly looking sister oak that is leaning into the cut and if it comes down will certainly take out the lines. My son has done a fair amount of tree cutting/removal (he did some logging in AR some years back too) so we can evaluate the possibilities of his climbing it, topping it, and bringing it down w/o losing my power. I fear I may need to get a man lift for the job. That’s a lot of money for one measly pain in my ass beast of an oak.
For dinner I’ve got some well rubbed chops in the frig that I’ll throw on the grill, some asparagus to go with them and plenty of delicata squash too. I’ll send them home with some squash and a couple dozen eggs for his trouble.
satby
@Baud: I probably had the only zucchini plants that didn’t even make zuccini!
Got only 1 the whole summer, they’re extremely dependent on abundant rain. My neighbors were starting to hide from me when they saw orange tomatoes heading for them though. I really had a lot.
Shantanu Saha
Little do you all know about the super-secret joint North Korean/Iranian Squash Bomb program. They plan to genetically engineer pumpkins to explode on contact.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: One of our best tree guys, the owner of Jesus and Mohammed’s tree service, was killed in in September taking down a huge oak.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Lightroom had a big update about a week or so ago, so I’m revisiting(reprocessing) some of my picture, here’s one I’m working on. I also used Topaz Labs Clarity on it.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: One of my problems with LR is that I bought a freestanding version and then got an incredible deal on the Adobe Suite and it seems to have weaseled its way into the LR and I’m having issues updating.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Lightroom 6 is the last of the stand-alone versions, it’s subscription now.
Betty Cracker
@raven: That’s terrible. But I love the name of that tree service.
Karen Potter
@satby: they have cages you can plant tulip bulbs in, I found that by planting tulips surrounded by daffodils worked as well except that the tulips don’t spread as well as they could.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
That’s the name of a real business? Wow.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: That is a very real fear.
JMG
Because of my wrist surgery, which went fine and the cast was removed last week, I can’t do any yard work for at least four weeks. So I had to hire a service to pick up the leaves sometime around Thanksgiving when most of the oaks will join their maple brethren on the yard, He asked me if it was OK if instead of taking them away to be mulched he and his crew just carried them into the large swampy woods at the back of our property. I said, “sure, I’ve doing that for 25 years.” Him: “You just saved $300.” I love it when sloth is the best business plan.
satby
@Karen Potter: I did that with some of the tulips, but have more than I planned. I usually plant only daffodils, if the tulips bulbs don’t get eaten by moles, the tulips flowers get bit off by squirrels. But I fell victim to unusually beautiful flower catalogs this year ?
Gin & Tonic
Rough night here. I have a colonoscopy and endoscopy (both; I hope they use a different instrument at each end) scheduled for 0630 tomorrow. Anybody who’s done prep for the lower one of those knows more or less what my night consisted of, and what today will be like.
Gin & Tonic
@satby: My wife loves tulips and keeps insisting on their being planted. The next spring the deer see an all-you-can-eat salad bar. But it doesn’t deter her. I still have several bags that need to go in the ground.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: that is a rough day, but you will sleep like a newborn this afternoon! As they say, the prep is much worse that the procedure!
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: It’s not my first rodeo, so yeah, I know that. Looking forward to tomorrow.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Ugh. I just had one, had it scheduled for 11 am. Much better than the first in the am as I was able to eat both a light breakfast and a light lunch the day before and then sleep thru some of the worst hunger pangs/hypoglycemic attacks (broth is wonderful for avoiding the hg attacks- protein in clear liquid form).
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: I hope after all that looking the find —
Nothing remarkable.
ETA As folks know, I got a lot of up close time with the gastric folks who cared for my wife this summer. Good news (mostly for the men, although not exclusively)!! Within two years, we probably will not need to endure colonoscopies in an investigative way. The have discovered an enzyme associated only with polyps,.so we will be having fecal tests and only endure colonoscopy joy if a polyp is present. Additionally, endoscopies will probably be over in 3-5 years because they are now perfecting imaging alternatives with ultrasound.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
They say they do …
satby
@Gin & Tonic: I love them, but know they won’t last. To try to improve their chances the ones that went into the ground were in daffodils beds, and the others are very close to the house. My last option is the cintainers, but that’s going to look great a month before at others plants can go on the porch!
Good luck today and tomorrow!
Immanentize
Meanwhile, in the garden — As AL mentioned, no frost yet but how long can we expect to wait here near Boston? I still have some nice tomatoes and tons of poblanos and Anaheim peppers to pick. Also. Scallions and lemon grass. Yea!
tobie
@Gin & Tonic: Good luck. The worst is behind you. After the prep, the procedure seems like easy peasy. I think I may have overestimated by strength yesterday news wise. Had surgery on Friday and just can’t handle the stress. On a happy note I discovered the show “The Durrell’s in Corfu.” It’s almost effervescent in its humor. Perfect distraction at bedtime.
Immanentize
@tobie:
Really? You had to go there? ?
satby
@JMG: I have a friend that’s doing everything she can to avoid surgery on her wrist, but nothing is helping. She says they told her the chances of full relief is only 50/50, but I think she should chance it because she’s in constant pain and miserable now.
satby
@tobie: give yourself time to recover!
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize:
Not with my luck.
With my luck the test will fail and I’ll end up with colon cancer.
With my luck after the cancer I will have to endure quarterly endoscopies.
And this is me being optimistic.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
You know what Albert King says about that….
Sab
So when or if do I take my houseplants in for the winter. My Dad’s nurses aide says bring in the geraniums but sacrifice the begonias. I have 20 year old begonias so I don’t agree, plus all the rescued geraniums grew up to be rangy guys with no flowers.
We only have a couple of days to decide,
Plant lives depend on BJ commentariat. Otherwise they all freeze this week.
tobie
@Immanentize: I thought of that while typing but without coffee I couldn’t think of a better phrase at the spur of the moment. Language is larded with body references…what to do?
@satby: Thank you for the good wishes! Politics is a contact sport. I need to keep that in mind.
JMG
@satby: It depends on the surgery. Mine was pretty routine (for them!), removing the plate and screws inserted after I broke my wrist two years ago. The plate was rubbing up against a tendon, causing minor swelling and no pain, but one day it’d cut into it and there’d be pain indeed. If her problem isn’t a broken bone or damaged tendon, I don’t know what the recommended procedure might be.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
Good luck tomorrow. The prep’s the worst part of it all. How’s the wrist?
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Gloom, despair, agony on me…
debbie
@satby:
I’ve seen gardening shows where they build a sort of chicken wire box with a lid, bury it in the ground, fill it with dirt, bury the bulbs inside, replace the lid, and then cover that up. Have you ever tried anything like that?
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab: Do what I do: Let God sort it out.
MomSense
My mom decided to go through her storage room but the elevator wasn’t working and the lights looked like they were still on generator level. My mom’s in a cast so I ended up carrying heavy boxes up and down the stairs so she could go through them in the lobby. My legs are not happy this morning.
debbie
@satby:
My 4 to 6-week window for a small wrist fracture has now turned into a 4-month wait-and-see. I’ll wear the damn brace for the rest of my life if I have to. There’s no surgery in my future if I can help it.
Zach
So this is the first round of Sunday talk shows since the indictments… what’s the ratio of time spent on these topics:
1) Brazile/DNC stuff
2) That the Trump campaign was told about Russia possessing hacked DNC emails months before they were released and didn’t report it to the FBI
Just curious.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Since I had major complications from my colonoscopy, my doctor has ordered the enzyme/fecal testing for me from now on. I’m relieved this is an option.
JMG
@debbie: I am extremely doctorphobic, but my two surgeries were the right call for me, no question. I can’t judge your situation, but make sure you’re not letting emotions get in the way of getting better.@Zach: All number one and no number two.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh thank you for that!
Immanentize
@Sab: Go with the begonias. Geraniums are easily replaced.
chris
@MomSense: Still no power? Wow.
I crossed the border at Calais last Monday morning in the tail end of the storm. There was evidence of at least a dozen trees down on the wires on Route 9. The power was out when I got to my aunt’s house but it came on Tuesday afternoon. We were lucky, when I left on Thursday there were still a lot of people in the dark.
rikyrah
@Gin & Tonic:
Good luck with both
chris
@Zach: Dave Weigel, tongue firmly in cheek, is reporting from Virginia this weekend.
MomSense
@chris:
I have power at my house and there is power downtown but many places are still without. I tried to get to an older friend’s house to bring her hot food and coffee but her road looked like giants had played pick up sticks with the pine trees. She was told it will take a few weeks to just clear away the trees so they can repair the electric lines.
Patricia Kayden
@chris: If they lose, that would be devastating. Hope they squeak through a victory.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: Making good but slow progress with the arm.
Baud
@chris: I think Dave thanks the gods every day that he’s not one of us.
jeffreyw
We’ll still have a few herbs until a frost whacks them, the last tomato plant was torn out by its roots, the figs were cut back and put to bed. The peppers were gleaned and dried for grinding into potent flake.
debbie
Is anyone reading We Were Eight Years in Power? I’m finishing up the epilogue. TNC finally lets loose on Trump.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
Good. It’s never fast enough, is it?
chris
@MomSense: Not surprising I guess. Just off the phone with auntie, quite a few people she knows are still in the dark.
Driving around we saw some awful tangled messes of trees, power lines and broken power poles. Good thing it happened mostly overnight, many more people would have been hurt or killed.
Jeff
I emailed the bulb company I ordered some bulbs from on the 27th of October to find out when they were shipping. They called me back within 45 minutes to say in one to two weeks. Said it was getting kind of late. The reply was it’s still warm. Had to agree. The bulbs came Friday. They got planted yesterday.
Elizabelle
@debbie: Bought it, but have not read it yet. Looks very good.
chris
@Patricia Kayden: Same.
Gelfling 545
@satby: I plant my tulips among daffodils and/or grape hyacinths. Most critters hate them enough to go eat someone else’s bulbs. You never get the garden catalogue picture worthy drift of tulips look that way,though.
satby
@Sab: well, I compromised on my one and only begonia by cutting it off to root, and I will lift the tuber in a day or so. My geranium comes in to join the hibiscus and bougainvillia (sp?).
chris
@Baud: He’s quite disgusted by Northam’s campaign people.
satby
@debbie: way too much work! Good idea, but I go with mostly daffodils primarily because they’re so low maintenance.
Baud
@chris: Because of the sanctuary city thing? Has any immigration group pulled their endorsement the way DFA did?
satby
@JMG: hers was a torn tendon with a stress fracture. Right now she has bone rubbing on bone. I tell her get the surgery, at least there’s a chance it will improve
Gelfling 545
@Gin & Tonic: i had that joy last year. Colonoscopy, fine; prep is ghastly. My sister just has one and only had to drink one small bottle – like less than a cup of something which had quick results without the need to try to sleep in the bathroom. I need to ask about that before my next one.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This super soldlier thing…
http://www.newsweek.com/antifa-supersoldiers-coming-kill-white-people-right-wing-conspiracy-699037
So Jones, who everyone claims is as about as real as Landover Baptist, starts this, the wingnuts lose it, some liberal goes full snark on it, which only confirms it in the wingnut brain.. Do have this right? So then I assume that the were reports of no squads of men in Fallout style power armor decapitating people will only confirm the 11-4 massacre to the wingnuts?
chris
@Baud:
Interesting thread.
Baud
@chris: I don’t know what that is referring to.
JMG
@satby: She should have it ASAP.
raven
@Amir Khalid: Yea, I actually didn’t know him but many friends did and he was quite a guy.
satby
@debbie: @JMG: not phobic, but I have almost coded twice under anesthesia, I’m extremely sensitive to it (and allergic to codeine).So I sympathize with not wanting unnecessary surgery, but incapacitating pain is a good reason to have it in my book. And that’s what my friend is going through.
Elizabelle
@Baud: What is DFA? Derping for America?
This is too big an election to turn on “sanctuary cities”. It’s a made up issue, to large extent. Virginia does not have sanctuary cities anyway. There are many, many more important and less symbolic issues that affect Virginians.
REDISTRICTING IN 2020. EYES ON THE PRIZE, PLEASE. I don’t know why this is not issue#1. Along with being a check/balance on the gerrymandered GOP state legislature.
Healthcare, environment, taxes, support for education and infrastructure. FUCKING VOTING RIGHTS.
I am sick of all the social media interference in elections, and the superheated, idiotic rhetoric. The parties are so far apart; it’s too unnerving to have this happen, every four years. I am just about out of this state. Would rather go somewhere more expensive, and saner. Sick of this fucking shit.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: Well, this has been very long. My surgery was over seven months ago.
Baud
@Elizabelle: Yeah. If I donated to DFA, I would stop.
satby
Well, got my huckleberry bushes and a dwarf cherry in, and I think I’ve finally decided where to put my crepe myrtle. I was going to let it stay potted another year, but it doubled in size and flowered this fall. So it needs to get in the ground. That’s tomorrow’s job, or tonight if I get out of work on time. The high temperature today will be close to 60°, but tomorrow will be in the forties. Now to get ready for work.
Everyone have a good day!
Kathleen
@Immanentize: The pun could have been a whole lot worst.
Betty Cracker
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’m glad Newsweek highlighted this ridiculous story. But it’s journalistic malpractice to publish any story connected to InfoWars without noting that Trump once appeared on Alex Jones’ radio show and heaped praise on that crackpot.
TerryC
We have some herbs left. Also some apples. My neighbor has paw paws and persimmons, which we’ve been harvesting a lot of.
The ground here has been soaked the last few days and I am taking advantage of easily dug soil by planting trees today, including paw paw, English walnut, buckeye, juniper, apple, birch, persimmon, plum, and catalpa.
Kathleen
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve been freaked out (in my case an understatement) a few times about tests (had biopsy done 20 years ago) but thank goodness everything has turned out fine. I hope you have the same outcome and sense of relief.
Kathleen
@Zach: I’ll take Door Number 1, Zach.
Denali
Must be balloon juice magic. I also was wondering what to do about my overly tall begonia with no potential home inside. So. Just cut it off – how high?
Any suggestions as to what vine to plant outside in the spring to soften a giant stone wall would be most appreciated.
MomSense
@Baud:
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. The only scandal in the VA governor’s race is that an establishment Republican who was head of the RNC, an advisor to George W Bush, Press Secretary for Kasich and advisor to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is running one of the most overtly racist, dishonest, and reprehensible campaigns of all time. The fucking media is gobbling up Dems in disarray and infighting while Gillespie is showing ads that glorify the treasonous, pro-slavery Confederate flag. And that’s not the only horror. It really is a disgusting mess that should be universally condemned by every person of conscience regardless of party. And yet on my tv it is non stop Brazile, Bernie, and crooked Hillary. The entire fucking beltway is addicted to their corrupt Hillary fix – the future of our democracy abandoned. Tumbrels are too good for these fools.
Suzanne
At home, got a bit of food and sleep, still waiting for a bed to become available for Spawn the Elder at a psych facility. We want to take Spawn the Younger to church, then head back to the ED to see her.
Sigh.
newdealfarmgrrrlll
It’s gonna be a busy day for me. The ground isn’t quite frozen yet and I have to temporarily park a couple dozen prairie seedlings in my veggie garden for the winter. I was overly optimistic at the end of season clearance …
MomSense
@Denali:
How tall are we talking? Blueberry hedge? Several Rose of Sharon? I’m nervous about vines generally.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: I know.
They all behave like the masturbating bear before Elections. Donna Brazile! Ebola! ISIS!
You cannot stop them from wanking off. Furiously.
Kathleen
@MomSense: Amen Amen. Also what @Elizabelle said about being sick of this shit.
MomSense
@Suzanne:
I’m glad you are trying to care for yourself as much as possible. This is one of the worst things to go through as a parent and sibling so please be gentle with yourself and each other. Sending you so much love and support. Big hugs to all of you.
Elizabelle
The Masturbating Bear. About :40 in.
If I had mad editing skills, I would toss that bear, wanking off, into a constantly streaming mix that would include all the Very Serious Faces from CNN (John King — no, here’s the bear!) and the Sunday morning gabfests, and MSNBC. Andrea Mitchell — here comes the bear! Charlie Rose. Who gives a fig about your conventional wisdom?
It’s like they cannot stop themselves, and they are bigger wankers than this bear could ever aspire to be.
Almost 30 minutes of the Masturbating Bear. He only wanks when he’s pretty sure he’s got an audience. Much like our pundits.
Linky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynBC8m21hUY
Denali
@MomSense,
Fourteen feet or so. The stone wall is at the top end of our driveway so there is not a lot of room between the asphalt and the wall. I have planted a Virginia creeper which many gardeners discourage because they are invasive, but this vine needs to be agressive. The stones are large dolomite blocks(larger than I anticpated) so the vines need to be determined. Thanks! Location – western NY.
Emma
Maybe they would get better if their ratings tanked. Don’t watch. Don’t subscribe.Talk your friends into the same. Be loudly explicit in social media as to why.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@MomSense: Tell that truth.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
Which is why Phuck Donna Brazile for not bringing her book out Next week.
She is now cancelled ?
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Suzanne: I wish there was some way to magically make everything better. I have two friends whose children were diagnosed as bi-polar in adolescence, and while both made lives for themselves eventually, it took time. Know that we’re all wishing good things for everyone in your life.
Suzanne
@MomSense: Thanks.
To top it off, we came home, and Spawn the Elder’s hamster had died.
I am tired.
lamh36
Good morning BJ! Gonna be a lazy Sunday for me then getting w/the fam. Oh…what makes it different than any given Sunday when I’m off? Oh…well…cause… it’s my Birthday! I am officially 41 years old today! ??⭐️????
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/927193943825108992
debbie
@rikyrah:
I agree with what you say, but she would have zero input on when her book gets published.
debbie
@lamh36:
You’re a kid! Happy birthday!
HAL
The Twitter is starting to buzz about pending Flynn and Flynn Jr. indictments. Maybe Putin will take Trump back to Russia with him after they meet?
Brooklyn Dodger
@debbie: Just got it – thanks for the preview can not wait. My sis got me Eight Years, Hill’s, Franken’s and Tur’s books for my birthday. Lots of reading to do.
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
@lamh36: Happy Birthday!
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: How is Spawn the Younger doing with all this?
Suzanne
@lamh36: Happy birthday! I hope you have a great day and a great year!
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@HAL: Really? I’ve been fantasizing about another Monday indictment, probably Flynn, but I thought it was all in my head. Is it possible I’m linked to twitter?
Ken
So, same as every Saturday?
Suzanne
@Elizabelle: She was upset yesterday, so she spent the afternoon with some of her friends, and that was a positive distraction. Right now, she’s okay.
MomSense
@Suzanne:
Of all the things. I am going to dream that at some point in the future you and elder spawn will have a cry until you laugh about how all the shit hit the fan at once but now you can look back on it as the trials that made you stronger and closer. You feel a fierce love for her and she needs that more than she can tell you. She’s going to be ok and so are you. We are all here for you.
rikyrah
Happy 70th Anniversary to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5050263/Queen-Elizabeth-Philip-s-platinum-anniversary-romance.html
DesertFriar
Could we have a roll call?
I hope & pray that the state of emergency is over where you live. I haven’t seen anything in the media yet.. but you know how they are — they never report the real news. Things were so bad here that they’ve closed down I-10 in El Paso for 27 hours. That’s how long it is going to take to erase the carnage. The “authorities” say it’s for road construction… but that doesn’t make any sense. I’m sure that when I look on the internet at the webs that speak the real truth, we’ll find that millions of Whites have been eradicated. I have also heard that they attacked and destroyed a Christian Church!!!
I tried to look for Billy Bob’s Church of the White Nazarene, but can’t find it. The “authorities” say it never existed, but we know better.
Yesterday will go down as the day we take the country back!!!!! It will be as famous as the Bowling Green Massacre.
Please report in with your harrowing stories.
rikyrah
@lamh36:
Happy Birthday, lamh ????????
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Betty Cracker:That doesn’t surprise me since Jones praises Trump a lot, but considering how gullible Trump is it’s quite possible Trump doesn’t get Alex Jones is just an act.
But that’s pretty disturbing how far gone the hard right has become. It really feels like we are underestimating the collective delusion they are in.
JCJ
@lamh36:
Birthday greetings! Why, I remember when you were lamh 35. Are you going to update to lamh41?
Brooklyn Dodger
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Always love your photos. I miss LA. Want to get a Dodgers shirt and hope for next year.
Cermet
Well, used the extra hour this morning after waking up to good use; realized I could make an easy fix to my Geiger counter. While it was more an annoying issue (causing the unit to stop working for time periods), I decided to get it off my “to do project list” in my nuclear physics lab at my house (Yeah, I have one.)
The Geiger counter had issues (surplus unit that was super cheap – the battery holder was corroded and I also had to fix some damaged components to make it work.) I installed a remote battery hook up to bypass to the badly damaged battery holder and the thing works flawlessly now – yea.
I use this unit to check for dangerous x-rays that my small fusor (a tiny, extremely safe, low yield fusion “reactor”) can produce. Nice to know this radiation hazard level when I run the fusor.
jeffreyw
@lamh36: I’m thinking you need to roll your lamh-o-meter to 41, you have missed a few already, seems like. Happy Birthday!
Emma
@lamh36: Happy birthday, kidlet!
Suzanne
@MomSense: Thank you. That means a lot.
I am really hoping for a “plot twist”, you know? When I had to have the cops remove my mom from her house and I committed her to County, that was a low point. But it got better from there. She describes that experience as a “reset”. I hope this is a similar reset for Spawn. When we told her what was going to happen, she didn’t seem angry or resistant. I think she might have been even a little bit relieved.
Amir Khalid
@Suzanne:
Sorry to hear about the hamster, too.
MomSense
@Denali: Trumpet Creeper (Bignoniaceae) has big orange flowers and dies back completely in winter so you won’t have the scary looking bare vines. Hardy zones 4-8. Don’t get the chinese trumpet vine. That isn’t hardy in your zone.
Clematis is another option. Lots to choose from in terms of color.
Wintercreeper Silver Queen-American bittersweet- is an evergreen so you will have variegated foliage all winter. It’s a Eunymus so make sure it doesn’t have a funky smell.
There’s always the classic English Ivy which I wouldn’t plant anywhere near a house but a stone wall would be fine. Boston Ivy is nice too.
Some honeysuckles are nice if you can keep them away from everything else.
If the vines are leggy at the bottom you can do potted plants at the base. I have a friend who does amazing little gardens along the back wall of his house with potted plants of all sizes and colors. If you don’t have a lot of soil that could be a nice option.
lamh36
@JCJ: i usually do…but the last time i did change it, it was a bitch and i had some trouble posting…but i do plan to later
chris
@MomSense: Testify!
Thank you, much better than any answer I had.
GregB
Breaking news. Trump campaign pastry chef that no one ever met, Mike Flynn may be in legal trouble.
Corner Stone
@MomSense:
I am so invested in having all the Trump admin and circle go to jail that when I first read that I tried for like a solid minute to figure out which Trump Team member you were talking about.
MomSense
@Suzanne:
Reset seems like the perfect way for elder spawn to think about this. Maybe a reframe about her meds as something she takes to feel good and not something she takes because there is something wrong with her. They make really cool pill boxes now – vintage, modern, floral, sporty, etc. She could pick something that suits her so she doesn’t have to look at those awful medicine bottles every day.
Not at all implying that is how you make her feel, just that there are still sooo many destructive messages about mental wellness and medications that we are all exposed to every day.
Amir Khalid
@lamh36:
Selamat Harijadi. Joyeux anniversaire. Alles Gute auf deinem Geburtstag. Feliz cumpleaños. Happy birthday. I’m all out of languages now, but I think you get the message.
Suzanne
@MomSense: She said she stopped taking her Lexapro three weeks ago because she didn’t feel like it was working. I had a regularly scheduled appointment for her with her psychiatrist tomorrow and I would have been happy to talk about upping the dose or switching to a different medication. And both her dad and I have noticed a decline in her mood in the last three weeks. So I think the Lexapro was keeping her at a baseline, even if it wasn’t as effective as she would have liked.
Adolescence is terrible, even for mentally healthy people. Lord. You couldn’t pay me any sum of money to be 13 again.
MomSense
@Suzanne:
That’s so tough. She probably didn’t realize how much better that baseline with Lexapro was compared to without it. We have peer support programs here in Maine. Sometimes people open up better with a peer support person than with their parents or doctors. Do you have anything like that where you live?
GregB
British Foreign Secretery and aging Milo Yiannopolous impersonator, Boris Johnson, comes under scrutiny for Russian tiesfor meetings with the comedy duo, Papadopolous and Mifsud.
It’s a global criminal conspiracy.
GregB
Long standing British douche-nozzle Boris Johnson, comes under scrutiny for meetings with Papadopolous and Mifsud.
Corner Stone
@GregB: It’s taken me this long in my career to understand where I went wrong. I should have focused on being a coffee boy a long time ago. Because that kid gets around!
Suzanne
@MomSense: Yes, there are things like that. She’s been doing talk therapy one-on-one, because I didn’t think she would be likely to open up in a group setting, but maybe we’ll try that, too.
Kathleen
@lamh36: Happy Birthday, lamh! Spending the day with the little chicas I hope!
Mart
I was in Germany trying to understand why a company would not extend their utilities from their new plant to the old. I estimated about $1M to relocate. Plant manager explained that they were next to an oil refinery during WWII, and they had many thousands of bombs dropped on their site. Extending the utilities would require hand digging to search for bones and bombs, and it would cost $15 to $20 million to relocate. I said oops, sorry, arrowheads and stuff in the US ya know. Later that day their sister site found three bombs while digging the foundation for a new building.
debbie
@Suzanne:
It always helps to know you’re not alone in what you’re going through. Group’s good for that.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
We had a pair of ash trees on the hillside behind the house. They died from the emerald ash borer and were leaning towards the house. I hired a guy who was a climber and a couple of timber workers. We put a rope way up the trunk, through a big snatch block pulley, to a big come-along.
They both fell as designed, 90 degrees from the hill side slope, away from the house. Only slightly dangerous part was on the climber, if a branch had come off. The timber cutter was named Harry but preferred his nickname, Lurch. A big good ole boy
Interesting guys, hard work in the timber patch, oil patch, farming. Try picking up 1400 square bales of hay on the hottest days of summer! Been there, done that… won’t be doing it any more.
J R in WV
@lamh36:
Happy birthday, you sweet young person!!! I’ll be 67 next month, feeling every day of it today. But I still like birthdays, each one a little victory.
Denali
@MomSense,
Thanks for the suggestions. Its great to have options to work with!
@Suzanne,
Yes, adolescence is the hardest time. But she knows you are there for her. Peer or one-on-one sounds like a good strategy. Thinking about you and her this morning.