It’s time for a no-politics no-doom-and-gloom open thread. I had a great time with family last week. How are all your pets? What have you created lately? Or how about just kicking back tonight with a video?
Here’s the happy heeler. Her name is Bella.
schrodingers_cat
Bella is nice but where are your cute kittehs?
chopper
just ate some nachos, so i have that going for me.
Mnemosyne
I think I finally got the logline for my novel figured out. Now I can order my business cards for the RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference next month (I have my author information on the front and the logline on the back.)
Now to figure out my oufits … ? Do I want to look business/professional, or do I want to be memorable? It’s a dilemma.
Business/professional: dresses with a blazer
Memorable: book-related t-shirts with a blazer and nice jeans or leggings
Cheryl Rofer
@schrodingers_cat: They did not come with me.
Major Major Major Major
1. I am buying two chickens in Stardew Valley. What should I name them?
2. I emailed the people from Monday’s interview today, coyly mentioning that I’m available to meet again next week since I’ll be in town for other interviews, if that’s an issue. Heard back right away to schedule a call tomorrow to ‘update’ me. Methinks they may be stalling for time for some reason. (They said they’d tell me Tuesday)
Tim C.
I have spent the last four days with my step-dad, a kind and wonderful man in his 70s as we build a playhouse for my two kids in the back yard. I’m about as handy as your average Kardashian and it’s been a fun experience to work with 2x4s and oriented strand board to build something fun. Also makes me reflective about how lucky I have been with my parents, step parents and kids to have the time and resources to make this kind of stuff.
HinTN
@Major Major Major Major:
Penny and Likewise
ETA: Those were the names I gave to the chickens I got when I was 12.
Major Major Major Major
@Cheryl Rofer: where did you go? Did you move without your cats??
Amir Khalid
I’m spending the day getting acquainted with my new Lady. She’s the white Squier Stratocaster that arrived yesterday by courier, and now occupies a stand alongside The Girl and Sister. (I bow to the guitar player’s tradition of naming one’s instruments.)
Cheryl Rofer
@Major Major Major Major: I visited family in Oregon.
ETA: The cats are still with me and have forgiven me for leaving them for the week.
NotMax
Positively indefectible loaf of half and half bread (roughly ½ whole wheat flour, ½ white flour) just removed from the super duper bread machine. With poppy seeds throughout plus a touch of basil for added enjoyment.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Lunch and Dinner.
Major Major Major Major
@Cheryl Rofer: phew!
@HinTN: I had ducks once named Bernard and The Archduke.
HinTN
@NotMax:
Quite the word.
HinTN
@Major Major Major Major: It’s a thing.
Major Major Major Major
@HinTN: my grandpa had a goose named Hoss.
Fuck that goose. Asshole.
HinTN
Also too, it’s nice to be tipsy in the hotel room packing to leave in the early AM from a week long conference!
HinTN
@Major Major Major Major: LOL
ETA: When I moved to the country as an impressionable young man I had a good ole country man (not boy) tell me an extended story about fucking a duck when he was “coming of age”. It’s a wild world.
Jeffro
OMG that looks about 95% like our Australian cattle dog/border collie mix, Cheryl! She just got her summer shave-down, so she looks like a dingo who maybe acquired a little bit of a taste for pizza crusts, lol!
NotMax
@HinTN
Quite the loaf.
:)
@Major Major Major Major
Suggestions, round two:
Harlan and Sanders.
Old Dan and Little Anne
Would the powers that be please delete my comment at #17? I fucked up commenting on my phone.
jeffreyw
JJ MacNab
Verified account
@jjmacnab
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Dear spellcheck gods:
I am angry at you. The phrase I am trying to type is not, “Go fund yourself.”
EBT
I thought this said Happy Healer open thread and you were gonna be all MMOchat.
SectionH
@Major Major Major Major: NotMax’s 2nd suggestion FTW. I guess you could substitute Colonel for Harlan…
Or Ginger and Rocky.
Mnemosyne
@jeffreyw:
Weird, my autocorrect always changes that word to “duck.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
I’ve been going back to some of my old pics and redoing them, especially the Milky Way pics from last year.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
Ahem. That should be Harland and Sanders.
Aleta
@Major Major Major Major: Cher and Adele.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Bone properly picked, and noted.
:)
Brooklyn Dodger
@Mnemosyne: Please do not take offense at this overly familiar comment from an infrequent commenter, but I picture you as memorable.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Duane: Cursing at my fucking phone!
guest turkey
sam my turkey
SectionH
@jeffreyw: Heh, you must be politer (is that a word? well, it is now) than I am. My spellcheckers don’t fuck around when I type “fu…”
PJ
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Roger that. The baby’s in the stroller and the chicken man is ready to fly. 329 Winslow Court.
Amir Khalid
@jeffreyw:
“Go fund yourself” is a perfectly good response to someone who’s pestering you for money.
Mnemosyne
@Brooklyn Dodger:
That’s what I’m leaning towards, because in appearance I am an unremarkable middle-aged white woman, so I feel like I need to stand out from the crowd of dresses-and-sweaters a bit. I don’t want to look sloppy, but I also don’t want to be too bland. ?
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
“Mommy, why is that lady carrying a gaggle of green balloons?”
;)
Major Major Major Major
What if I named the chickens Moose and Squirrel?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: I’m sure Harland Sanders would be interested.
SectionH
@Amir Khalid: !!!! You’re right. I’m gobsmacked. Apparently most Kentuckians lost track of the “d” long ago. (Not a Kentuckian, but I lived there a long time. In a Blue Island, but it was Harlan there too).
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Too Russophilic.
:)
Fido and Spot. The classics never really go out of style.
Of course, there’s always Cole and Tunch…
RandomMonster
I love heelers. Our red heeler George passed on a few years ago. He was a loving dog and, well, a cattle dog with everything that entails about being clever and a big handful. But we loved him.
In other news, I successfully convinced my employer to keep me on as a remote worker so we can move to the east coast out of Silicon Valley.
Duane
@Major Major Major Major: Do you enjoy the company of FBI agents? Can’t be too careful nowadays. And all this cross-country travel. You’re a walking red flag.
Barbara
@Major Major Major Major: Dudley and Penelope?
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
I hope there won’t be any kids at the convention. That would be way more inappropriate than a t-shirt. ?
Major Major Major Major
@Duane: does watching the x-files count? I enjoy that.
Brooklyn Dodger
@Mnemosyne: Jeans and blazer always looks sharp, and the book theme t or any nonpolitical theme you’re passionate about will inspire interest. Bull terriers (real and on tshirts) work for me. I hope you let us know how it goes.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: What are the chickens going to be used for? Eggs? Eating? Both?
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
My iPad’s so used to it, I have no issues with typing it in.
Jager
We cleaned our pond, cleaned the filter, planted new water plants, lilies and lotus blossoms. We got a dozen mosquito fish and 30 goldfish. That was a month ago. What have I learned? Fish are incredible pigs. I may as well stand on the side of the pond and yell soo-wee, soo-wee (spelling?) The little shits school up and go crazy at feeding time, feeding our fish is like slopping hogs. And they are growing like crazy, Mrs J is giving them names, the biggest is George, gold with white lips, he is already eating out of her hand, he’s gone from under an inch to 2 inches in a month.
Amir Khalid
@Yarrow:
If he wants to name them he must be planning to have them around for the long term, so probably not for eating. I think people who name the animals they plan to eat are … scary.
Ohio Mom
@Mnemosyne: Whatever you feel most comfortable (physically, psychologically) in.
Mnemosyne
@Brooklyn Dodger:
My blazer is this awesome sweater/jacket from Betabrand that I love. It looks like a structured blazer but is made out of sweater material for maximum comfort. I wore it to my casual office one day and got loads of compliments.
Mnemosyne
@Ohio Mom:
So, yoga pants and a t-shirt with holes in it? ?
The main thing I’m worried about with the jeans is that I still have to wear my stupid knee brace, and the Jag Jeans that my middle-aged midriff prefers tend to make the brace shift around. Ugh.
Duane
@Major Major Major Major: Adam will need to update your file.
Steeplejack
@RandomMonster:
That’s good news. Congratulations!
NotMax
@Jager
Memorable moment from a delightful Japanese show about things and places in Japan, <em.Soko Ga Shiritai, took place during a visit with a koi farmer. Paraphrasing from memory:
KOI FARMER: That one there is a 500 thousand yen fish. The one over there is a 10 thousand yen fish.
REPORTER: What’s the difference? They look identical to me.
KOI FARMER (as if patiently explaining to a very slow, very young child): The difference is – that one is a 500 thousand yen fish and the other one is a 10 thousand yen fish.
Brooklyn Dodger
@Mnemosyne: Umph there you go! AND shoes. Don’t worry bout the knee brace it’s character.
Mai naem mobile
@Major Major Major Major: are they both females or are you getting a rooster and hen. Anyhoo, Chic and Ken or Elvis and Priscilla. We need more info than 2 chickens..
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Hoop skirt with six or seven petticoats. No one will notice the knee brace at all.
;)
Steve in the STL
@HinTN: “and he’s now an elder statesman republican congressman!”
Steve in the STL
@Duane: ruh-roh didn’t realize that was a red flag!
trollhattan
@Jager:
I get much pleasure from our two ponds–the large one for koi, the small one for decoration. Koi will basically grow to the space and water quality they’re afforded–up to salmon-sized–goldfish too to a limit, and both are VERY adept at making more fishies. At this point koi I’ve bought are outnumbered 5:1 by ones spawned in the pond. They are worth approximately 1 Yen each and I’m fine with that. Koi can live a century, for what that’s worth.
A small delight courtesy of the county mosquito abatement district was ordering mosquito fish on line for our decorative pond. They were delivered next day, gratis. Gummint I can believe in.
Brickley Paiste
That looks like an absolute unit of a dog.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
True story: crinolines kill.
Snarlymon
Blue Heelers are such great dogs. I still miss my Moxie who passed several years ago.
RandomMonster
@Steeplejack: Aw, thank you so much! It’s a big company and they’re kinda set in their ways, but they looked at it and figured there’s not really a reason someone couldn’t do the job remotely with all the modern communications. As it is now, I actually join most meetings via video anyway even if they’re on campus!
M4
@NotMax: there is a moment much like this in my novel between an apprentice and master sushi chef ?
SectionH
@NotMax: I had the serious privilege to meet a 100+ yr old Koi, well, at least observe the Koi in his pond in a family garden in Japan. I don’t remember the gender, but I think maybe it was “he” – I remember our host telling us how that fish had been carefully transported somewhere in safe during WW2, and was then returned to his pond in their house south of Yokohama. He was very large, but not record-gigantic. And my talking-google source (Mr S) tells me that the oldest Koi on record died at 250+ yrs old. Not that I ever doubted our hosts that evening anyway.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Along with leaky gas pipes and arsenic exposure from the green dye favored by Victorians for carpets, wallpaper and women’s and children’s clothing, what’s one more hazard?
NotMax
@NotMax
A bit of history on the green dyes (both Emerald Green and Scheele’s Green were particularly popular and also particularly toxic). Scheele’s Green was also used to color foods such as sweets as well as in paints for such things as children’s toys, and much later as an insecticide.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
Writing historical novels is not for sissies.
Duane
@Steve in the STL: So long as you keep changing your alias you should be okay. And keep moving. Like the old show “The Fugitive” only for lawyers.
EBT
@trollhattan: I have heard that limit is quite big. I restaurant I used to go to had them in excess of 10 inches.
Mnemosyne
@EBT:
That’s what she said!
I’m sorry, but someone had to say it.
ruemara
I managed to finish posting all the best pictures from the local music festival. That’s really about all it is. Just sorta hanging in there.
EBT
@Mnemosyne: Before I had my surgery, folks used to call me the ruiner of holes.
Steve in the ATL
@Duane: good plan. Will do my best!