Maybe you should just get him his own chihuahua and let him chew on it. That should calm him down.
Seriously, I can’t imagine what it’s like for you, trying to keep the Iggster calm and quiet. I know you’re counting down the days.
5.
Sammie128
“Egrets, I’ve seen a few …” but then again, too few to mention …
6.
Gin & Tonic
Props for the Sinatra reference.
7.
Elizabelle
But then again, too few to mention.
Any thread that brings to mind egrets, and Frank Sinatra. And Iggy.
I will be driving a convertible in a high school homecoming parade this afternoon. Just got asked, because they were short a convertible. Hoping it won’t rain, and glad to be old enough not to be self conscious about this.
@SiubhanDuinne: Ha! I’d get him a chew Chihuahua, but it would be expensive cruel.
My husband was leaving for work this morning while I was walking Iggy next to the house. He came around to say goodbye, Iggy saw him and started barking like mad. I stood there bent over this poor dog to block his view while yelling at my husband to “GO ALREADY!” Goofy picture — two panicked middle-aged adults and an oblivious, barky mini Schnauzer. I swear our lives are like deleted scenes from Best In Show right now.
12.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Karen in GA: That Iggy – he’s a hoot. I’m going to try to figure out my new commenting issues at his place. FYWP, I’m sure.
Pretty egret! As to the OP question, I’ve got an interesting evening ahead. It’s an awards dinner for a nonprofit which is in the midst of acquiring the nonprofit I direct. It’s not going well. As my board president said yesterday “everything they (that chapter’s staff) touch turns to shit in about 10 minutes.” That’s strong language from him, as he’s usually quite proper. It’s not inaccurate, though. The process has gotten incredibly complicated, due mostly to that staff. Who, unlike me, will continue to have jobs.
Some of it might be due to my emergence as more prominent than my predecessor in the local-regional nonprofit world, but my board asked me to raise our regional profile. Until then, the director of the acquiring group had been the big local player associated with the nonprofit name. Oh well.
It’s gotten particularly less than pleasant these last couple of weeks. My board pres said yesterday that he’s “on a slow boil.” I’ll see him tonight at the event. Fun all around, no doubt.
@Gin & Tonic: Funny — my mother has always loved Frank Sinatra (I was raised by Brooklyn Italians, so it’s a requirement). I keep forgetting that Sinatra isn’t constantly in the background of everyone’s life like it was mine.
16.
p.a.
You overexpose, John usually underexposes (except when he washes floors);-)
17.
JPL
I have a heron visit once and awhile, just to make sure the pond is still gone. There was a man made fish pond that I covered up over a year ago.
@Karen in GA: I just voted for Iggy! If you win, he needs a new chew toy.
Okay I won’t be able to hear that song without thinking of birds from heron out.
It’s funny because the English lyrics (which are also terrible — “without exemption”, “not in a shy way” — put the rhyming dictionary on the ground and step away slowly) are so American in a certain way, and the song it’s based on by contrast are so French.
They’re basically “I wake up, touch you, you ignore me, as usual, I eat breakfast, as usual, go to work, as usual, everything is gray, everything sucks, as usual…”
The repetition of “comme d’habitude” (as usual) is almost like “so it goes” in some ways. In fact it’s a lot like it.
The guy who wrote it, aside from being French, was breaking up with this person. So you know, not much of a mystery where the mood of the original comes from.
20.
burnspbesq
Landon Donovan pulls on a USA shirt for the last time tonight.
I prefer the version where two alligators (or crocodiles) are talking and one says, “Egrets? I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention.”
27.
PurpleGirl
This time last week I was on my way to Hartford to help Cassie (of Cassie’s Kitten Kastle) at the Pet Expo on Saturday. Friday was set-up day. I stayed with Cassie Frdiay night. One of the cats (Mia) slept with me on the couch and there was a new kitten in the bathroom who I played with. I also spent some time in the kitten room, although she had the cam off. On Saturday the Expo went well. Cassie had 5 kittens adopted. And she got her shelter’s name out as a plqace to adopt in Northeast CT. Saturday night I stayed in a hotel. It was tiring but a good day.
28.
d58826
Everytime I think the GOP congress critters have hit the bottom of the stupid mine, some one gets a bigger shovel. Sen. Vitner is opposed to Obama’s Ebola request because most of the money is going to be spent in (lights, camera, drumroll) Africa. Imagine that
29.
Tokyokie
A few years ago, when we had an especially wet spring, a pair of egrets built a nest down by the creek across the street from us. It was cool to have them in the neighborhood. We also had some wild ducks nesting by the same creek around that time — one day I came home to find a pair of ducklings in my front yard, and I had to shoo them across the street and into the weeds so they could find their way back to the nest.
We only had the egrets for one season, and although the ducks were there for several years, we haven’t had them since the lots next to the creek were developed. Of course, the fools who built on those lots are going to find 6 feet of water in their houses at some point, but oh well. (Our house is on the highest point on the block, and the creek would probably have to get 20 feet above flood stage to get us, and with a large flat area on the opposite side of the creek at about 10 feet above flood stage, I can’t really see that ever happening. Not that we can get affordable flood insurance.)
I commented on one of yours posts saying that minor details like the rule of law and the cost of futile court cases haven’t stopped GOP AGs before, and indeed it hasn’t stopped the South Carolina and Idaho AGs. West Virginia is by my count the first state with a GOP AG to throw in the towel in face of the inevitable, Colorado, Nevada and North Carolina all having Dem AGs.
32.
Calouste
@d58826: Fighting them over there before you have to fight them over here only applies to hued humans, not to viruses.
Sigh. Kate left behind a big financial mess and now I recently discovered I’m on the hook for about $25k in back taxes she had.
So I’m leaving what is literally the perfect apartment to move in with a friend. And it’s killing me. It’s so depressing to walk the dog and be reminded of how perfect this place is and how much I love it. The patio overlooking the river, the park, the eagle nest, the dog park, being near downtown/dinkytown/NE, Main Street, St.Anthony Falls, fireworks viewed from the patio, and so on. It’s just what I’ve always wanted.
Just gave them my notice today.
God dammit. Kate, I’m really, really pissed off at you. You didn’t take care of the things you should have. I will be paying your debts for twenty more years. And now your tax issue is the final straw that pushed me over the edge and I have to make serious cuts. And it’s costing me one of few things in life that sort of makes me happy. The only other thing is the dog. Everything else has been going so horrible. I wish you would have cared about me enough to take care of me like I took care of you. The situation should have been reversed. You would have had it made.
35.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Cervantes: Yeah I actually knew that but I couldn’t ever find the original-original either. Sort of assuming it had nothing to do with what are now the English lyrics though, which everything I’ve seen says that Paul Anka wrote after he heard the French one, in France, on TV.
Re France Gall, well she was traumatized to learn about the suggestiveness of the lyrics, definitely.
Best day of some young lives: getting out of prison. In this case, best day interrupted fifteen minutes in.
A Manhattan man was sprung from an upstate prison Thursday after serving 15 years — only to be shot 15 minutes later by a thug he snitched on, law enforcement sources told The Post. The 33-year-old man was released from Otisville State Prison at 9:45 a.m. with a train ticket for a trip to a halfway house in Manhattan.
But when he got outside, someone in a white Hyundai offered him a ride — an offer he quickly accepted. After about two miles, the car pulled over and a second person hopped out of the trunk, pulled out a gun and fired two shots at the newly freed man, police sources said.
My takeaway: You’re probably not likely to make a New Best Friend in front of prison, so take the damn train.
39.
Cervantes
@Bill E Pilgrim: I’m sure you’re right: not only that Anka was writing to the tune only, but also that a translation might have been less tortured than his lyrics.
Still, why quarrel with success?
40.
Trollhattan
@El Caganer:
Wow. Suddenly my “Sandusky” autographed tank top seems socially acceptable again.
Giants better TCOB and kick their asses in four.
41.
Cacti
Alison Lundergan Grimes (D-KY): dead to me.
Wouldn’t answer whether she voted for the POTUS, then dog whistled about being a “Clinton Democrat”.
With friends like these.
…sigh…
42.
PurpleGirl
@Gex: I’m sorry to hear of your problems. I have no advice for you but great sympathy.
43.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Cervantes: Also it was the same French songwriter who wrote the first lyrics in English. Then he wrote the “comme d’habitude” lyrics in French. Just to be clear. I’d be curious to see those, but I mean I can’t imagine them resembling “My Way”.
@Cervantes: Oh I quarrel with success all the time :) Some of the most successful people are some of the worst at what they do. Just a law of nature, capitalism, and bad taste.
Really though my point was just how interesting it is that the morose, embracing sorrow version was very French and the success-celebrating English version was very American. Sort of a textbook study.
Ugggh. We had family members who were Not Happy about the way my dad left things, but fortunately for us, he was a fanatic about taxes and made sure all of that was up to date. Have you talked to a tax lawyer to see if there’s any way you can get it reduced? This may be the one time when you can play the it’s not like we were married card and potentially benefit from it. I definitely wouldn’t just accept the debt if there’s any chance of getting it reduced.
(And my aunt-in-law almost managed to get the house she lives in sold at auction because she didn’t bother to pay the property taxes, which we were all pretty pissed about. It’s not like she didn’t have the money, she just didn’t feel like paying them.)
ETA: Also, too, you probably don’t want to, but is there any way you could ask Kate’s family to help pay down her debts? I know there’s a good chance they’re broke, too, but I wanted to put it out there.
Kate left behind a big financial mess and now I recently discovered I’m on the hook for about $25k in back taxes she had.
Query: How’d that happen? Are you hung up on a joint return? Or is this something that Uncle Sugar is claiming against whatever funds Kate had to leave to you in her estate?
50.
dr. luba
@Gin & Tonic: Funny, I always think of Sid Vicious when I hear the title. I think he had the definitive version of the song.
My youngest niece was elected to the senior homecoming court at her high school. I am missing the parade tonight (bad aunt!), since I work until 7 and it’s across town, but I will go by tomorrow to take some photos. Her mother tells me she has a date, but does not want to be alone with him……even for photos. She’s going with a group of friends. Also, too–the parents are much more excited about all this than she is (living vicariously). I don’t think she was even planning to go before being chosen to the court.
I thought the same thing, at first, but please check out the morning open thread. Botsplainer and others had some good insight on Grimes.
Bottom line: she’s politicking. Someone mentioned Jimmy Carter said some yuck stuff he repudiated once elected.
I can’t stand the disrespect for her president and party either. But beating Mitch in a state where Obama has a 30% approval rating is still — beating Mitch!
Working this weekend because the overlords at the workplace get a bang out of scheduling multiple simultaneous deadlines without bothering to hire enough staff to meet them.
Second part of Ann Leckie’s ‘Ancillary’ trilogy just came out, so I’ll read that. The hero, Breq, is an AI who once occupied hundreds of bodies but is now ‘confined’ to a single human body. Lots of interesting stuff going on in the story– e.g., Breq has trouble distinguishing between genders, so she refers to everyone as ‘she’– and the reader generally never finds out the ‘actual’ gender of any given character.
“Egrets? Seen them often the last few weeks. And rarely, a very large Crain like bird (Maryland area.)
As for the weekend, my fiancée wants me to take her and her best friend (also female – a friend from high school that recently moved back to the area) to a strip club (featuring only woman; while a “high end” place, I understand that it can include some routines as well… .) This woman has never been to any strip club (and really, who generally has?) and asked my fiancée to arrange it. They both insist that I must be there (That I understand since they do not want to be harassed.)
Well, I guess I will need a lot of dollar bills …artist do need to get paid for their performance, I would think. Got a feeling that it will be me doing the blushing … . I just wish a major film was out like, maybe Twenty Shades of Grey … no, wait. That might be worse … .
60.
d58826
@Calouste:Vitner seems concerned that Obama is not protecting Americans from one dead man; therefore we have to spendthe money here. (sigh)
No post on this here blog that same-sex marriage is now legal in West-by-God-Virginia?
Out here on the left coast, they started performing same-sex marriages here in Vegas, baby! A state representative was one of the first to get a license.
63.
MattF
@cermet: I took a girlfriend to a strip club once (at her request), and she had a reasonably good time. I agree that it is a good idea for women to go with a man, and that it’s a good idea for women to see what goes on in a strip club.
64.
cckids
@Mnemosyne: You have my condolences; we did it in June, and I’m still recovering.
I will say, though, that the severe downsizing was a GREAT idea. From 3100 sq feet to 1350. Things aren’t perfect, but for the first time in 25 years, NO stairs!! My knees and my dog (with his bad back) are thankful.
65.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Gex: I’m so sorry to read that. It’s heartbreaking. Dumb question: have you consulted counsel about negotiating the tax matter?
66.
Tone In DC
They both refused my counter offer of dinner/movie/drinks for a social evening together and insist we go to the strip club. So, I guess I’ll take them (My fiancée say “we” will have a ton of fun … . Yes, she has been to that one (previous boyfriend like going there) and while I am twenty odd years older then her, I have to say I’ve lived a more reserved life.
That sounds like an… interesting evening.
Personally, I’m okay until a girlfriend wants to take me shoe shopping with her. I’d rather have major surgery without anesthesia than do that.
67.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Anything interesting? I’m waiting with bated breath for an Amazon delivery of a weird mix of small items that reached critical mass at the same time: cell phone screen protector, pen refills, oven thermometer, ear plugs for swimming, etc. Be still, my heart.
68.
Trollhattan
Am changing my former Official Position and declare I no longer welcome our robot overlords. Dear lord that bastard is fast.
69.
gian
JPL open house this weekend
70.
Origuy
@Mnemosyne: Weren’t you the one asking about voting, whether to vote in your old precinct or in the new one? Because I asked a woman I know who has been an election official for a long time. First she said you should call the elections office, but you did that. I don’t remember if you are changing counties. She said the new county may let you register at the new address if the move date is contractual (on a lease or purchase agreement.) Some counties (she’s in San Mateo) also have voting centers where you can use the machines in advance.
71.
some guy
taking Some Kid to Gators versus LSU Saturday night. Gators need a decisive victory, but a win one way or another will be more than enough.
Thanks! I’m staying within the same county — in fact, if our new place had been just a few blocks east, we wouldn’t have even left our US congressional district. There is one (1) early voting location in Los Angeles County, down in Norwalk, and they’re only open 8-5 Monday through Friday. I’m starting to consider it, though, just because it seems like such a pain in the ass to try and figure out another way to do it.
ETA: I finally decided to request a one-time Vote By Mail ballot. It’s less of a pain than driving to frickin’ Norwalk, and I will still be at the old address through the final date to request one.
73.
Origuy
@cermet: I’ve been to a few strip clubs in my time. I’m not saying what that time is. Anyway, they vary a lot, so generalizations are difficult. Your friends are no more likely to be harassed than at a regular night club. The guys are there to see the women who are being paid to pay attention to them. However, they’ll be treated better by the women if there’s a guy with them.
74.
Calouste
So I found out that in some National Parks it is legal to openly carry a gun, but it is illegal to hunt to discharge the gun. That demonstrates again that for ammosexuals it’s all about showing off their pen1s substitutes mancessories in public.
75.
low-tech cyclist
Headed kinda sorta in your direction tomorrow, Betty – my wife and son and I are headed for Anna Maria Island for the week.
The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful…
76.
Mike in NC
Looking out at the pond behind the house we can see egrets, herons, geese, ducks, ibises, and storks. Plus the occasional alligator. Quite a change from Falls Church, VA.
77.
rea
“This way to the Egrets!” as PT Barnum used to say . . .
78.
Shana
@Mnemosyne: Yes, moving sucks. I have found it helpful when doing prep work to imagine all the military families that have to move every year or two and how much easier I’ve had it by comparison.
79.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Didn’t Manziel get popped for a similar offense and only sit out one game? Of course, he got busted in the off season…
@some guy: I hope the Gators can pull off a win of any magnitude. Luckily for us, LSU is pretty damn shaky this year. Still, if I had to put actual money on it, I wouldn’t like our chances. But hope springs eternal!
80.
Trollhattan
@Calouste:
The Rs put that poison pill in some unrelated bill the Kenyan had to sign early in his administration. Something along the lines of “the federal gummint shall not deprive Patriots[tm] of their state-issued concealed carry permits when they enter National Parks.”
Open carry, I had not heard of and would question its legality. I can vouch that in the backcountry, the park boundary trail signs still say firearms are prohibited.
I took a girlfriend to a strip club once (at her request)
Me, too, but it was a sleazy Springfield, MA place and she made it less than ten feet in the door before fleeing. I’m not sure what she was expecting but I guess it was too sleazy for her.
Really though my point was just how interesting it is that the morose, embracing sorrow version was very French and the success-celebrating English version was very American. Sort of a textbook study.
Yes.
Different exercise: Compare Lollipop (Ronald & Ruby, USA, 1957) and Les Sucettes (France Gall, France, 1966).
86.
raven
@JPL: If I’m Todd I just say “fuck it” and get ready for the draft.
87.
JPL
@raven: I hope he does. He has the ability to be drafted in the first round and make some serious money.
I have no advice to offer but want to extend my sympathy. That is such an awful way to have a shitty time compounded. I really hope the suggestions of our resident tax experts will work out for you. Either way, so very sorry and I really hope it turns out better than it seems right now.
90.
Ruckus
@Jebediah, RBG:
Norwalk, CA?
I realize this was snark but I think you went a bit too far.
France Gall’s Wikipedia page offers the fact that one of her songwriters had the delightful name Guy Magenta. His Wikipedia entry consists of the single sentence “Guy Magenta (1927–1967) was a French composer” with the notation “This page has some issues.”
@Jane2: Yeah, I was having fun with the panic, imagining the panicked little bug-eyed chihuahua as a stand-in for some people I keep in touch with on FB.
Okay I won’t be able to hear that song without thinking of birds from heron out.
Well played, sir.
Visiting colleges this weekend and next. Looking forward to getting some hikes in as both are in really nice areas. One of them is near a summer camp I went to when I was in Junior High School so I may go and see what the place is like now.
96.
Tree With Water
I wish the Nobel had not been awarded to that girl today. They might as well have tatooed a bullseye on her.
I probably shouldn’t even say anything, but … I got a nibble on some resumes I sent out. We’ll see if I manage to land an interview.
And my detractors should be cheering for this to happen, because it would leave me a lot less time to post during the day. ;-)
101.
Trollhattan
Waiting for the microwave to finish stirring my lunch’s molecules I read the breakroom household cleaner bottle label. I am now reassured the cleaner is “GLUTEN FREE”
I’m going to reread my car’s owner manual and find out if that sucker is GLUTEN FREE.
102.
Amir Khalid
We had a Prime Minister in Malaysia — Dear Dr Mahathir, my dad’s old friend from medical school — whose favourite English song was My Way. The joke here was that Dr M had his own lyrics: “Oh no, we don’t do that, we do it My Way.”
103.
shelley
Not much. Got a recipe for Pumpkin rolls with cream cheese frosting I might give a try..
104.
Trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
A buddy who decamped for the Sierra foothills gets frequent deer, the occasional bear and rumors of mountain lions through his yard. Wednesday afternoon, this was the scene at the top of his driveway. Lucky for them it headed the other way, down-canyon.
@Trollhattan: The National Park’s website mentions that state law forbids open carry on the park’s busses, so that kind of implies that open carry is legal in the park in general under state law (with an open carry license, I guess).
All will be glad to know that I received my weird miscellany of stuff from Amazon, packaged in an equally weird miscellany of three separate packages. Go figure.
Just reloaded my Fisher Bullet Space Pen with a blue fine cartridge and already feel more productive. Next up: check the oven with the oven thermometer!
Unexpected bonus: I also received a DVD set of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Season 2 sent by an old friend in Alaska. O frabjous day!
112.
Trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Pushes the “too close for comfort” concept to an entirely different level. The fire ignited along the interstate less than a hundred yards from their property. Had the winds been different they could easily have lost everything within the first thirty minutes. California is having an interesting year.
113.
Cervantes
@Steeplejack: What makes you say it was premature?
You have to buy them each lap dances. It is customary and expected that female patrons receive a lap dance, and better still if there is a private area that you can accompany them to in order to receive lap dances.
Yes, well, he was forty. One day he up and bought an E-Type and promptly crashed it on the highway, two hours out of Paris — and died.
118.
joel hanes
egrets … I’ve seen a few
Freddie Mercury and I see what you did there.
119.
Ruckus
@Jebediah, RBG:
There are a number of places in SoCal that I don’t miss going to. Soon the weather won’t be worth the dehydration.
120.
EthylEster
@low-tech cyclist: so do you pronounce it like “i’ve just met a girl named maria” or “they call the wind maria”? because my mom (a cracker herself) ALWAYS chose the latter.
ETA: A Balloon Juice comment thread is not the first place I expected to find somebody who knows the Mardi Gras… not even the sleaziest of Springfield’s strip joints! This was back before they started closing the front door, when you could see the some of the goings-on walking down Taylor Street.
I haven’t been back there in a very long time. Is it still there?
123.
scuffletuffle
@Jebediah, RBG: Yes, and still delightfully sleazy, with occasional gunplay in the surrounding streets. Last time I drove by, there were two guys parked in front of it smoking a dubie
124.
Jebediah, RBG
@scuffletuffle:
so I guess what looked like some attempts at gentrifying those couple of blocks failed?
(that’s going back a bit over twenty years)
Comments are closed.
Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!
Karen in GA
Walking a dog recovering from heartworm treatment is tricky. Iggy is proof.
SiubhanDuinne
Met Opera Live in HD season begins tomorrow, with Verdi’s Macbeth, and I’m the Met Ambassador for Atlanta this year. So there’s that.
Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving*. For all the Canadian Juicers, have a lovely holiday with friends and family.
*AKA, time to close up the cottage for the winter.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Waiting to get on a shuttle up to Duluth to watch Gopher hockey this weekend. I’m making most of my trips by bus this year to save wear on the car.
SiubhanDuinne
@Karen in GA:
Maybe you should just get him his own chihuahua and let him chew on it. That should calm him down.
Seriously, I can’t imagine what it’s like for you, trying to keep the Iggster calm and quiet. I know you’re counting down the days.
Sammie128
“Egrets, I’ve seen a few …” but then again, too few to mention …
Gin & Tonic
Props for the Sinatra reference.
Elizabelle
But then again, too few to mention.
Any thread that brings to mind egrets, and Frank Sinatra. And Iggy.
I will be driving a convertible in a high school homecoming parade this afternoon. Just got asked, because they were short a convertible. Hoping it won’t rain, and glad to be old enough not to be self conscious about this.
Elizabelle
@Sammie128:
You beat me to it!
It was a very good year …
Botsplainer
I can never see the word “regret” without thinking of this:
http://wtftattoos.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/noregerts.jpg
Calouste
No post on this here blog that same-sex marriage is now legal in West-by-God-Virginia?
Karen in GA
@SiubhanDuinne: Ha! I’d get him a chew Chihuahua, but it would be
expensivecruel.My husband was leaving for work this morning while I was walking Iggy next to the house. He came around to say goodbye, Iggy saw him and started barking like mad. I stood there bent over this poor dog to block his view while yelling at my husband to “GO ALREADY!” Goofy picture — two panicked middle-aged adults and an oblivious, barky mini Schnauzer. I swear our lives are like deleted scenes from Best In Show right now.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Karen in GA: That Iggy – he’s a hoot. I’m going to try to figure out my new commenting issues at his place. FYWP, I’m sure.
Pretty egret! As to the OP question, I’ve got an interesting evening ahead. It’s an awards dinner for a nonprofit which is in the midst of acquiring the nonprofit I direct. It’s not going well. As my board president said yesterday “everything they (that chapter’s staff) touch turns to shit in about 10 minutes.” That’s strong language from him, as he’s usually quite proper. It’s not inaccurate, though. The process has gotten incredibly complicated, due mostly to that staff. Who, unlike me, will continue to have jobs.
Some of it might be due to my emergence as more prominent than my predecessor in the local-regional nonprofit world, but my board asked me to raise our regional profile. Until then, the director of the acquiring group had been the big local player associated with the nonprofit name. Oh well.
It’s gotten particularly less than pleasant these last couple of weeks. My board pres said yesterday that he’s “on a slow boil.” I’ll see him tonight at the event. Fun all around, no doubt.
Thanks for reading the vent.
schrodinger's cat
Usually when I see have seen them, they have been perched on a water buffalo. By them, I mean egrets.
Mnemosyne
Have I mentioned lately that we’re moving? Because we’re moving, and IT SUCKS ASS.
Karen in GA
@Gin & Tonic: Funny — my mother has always loved Frank Sinatra (I was raised by Brooklyn Italians, so it’s a requirement). I keep forgetting that Sinatra isn’t constantly in the background of everyone’s life like it was mine.
p.a.
You overexpose, John usually underexposes (except when he washes floors);-)
JPL
I have a heron visit once and awhile, just to make sure the pond is still gone. There was a man made fish pond that I covered up over a year ago.
@Karen in GA: I just voted for Iggy! If you win, he needs a new chew toy.
Karen in GA
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Ugh. No advice for you, but my undying sympathy. Sounds hellish.
Bill E Pilgrim
Okay I won’t be able to hear that song without thinking of birds from heron out.
It’s funny because the English lyrics (which are also terrible — “without exemption”, “not in a shy way” — put the rhyming dictionary on the ground and step away slowly) are so American in a certain way, and the song it’s based on by contrast are so French.
They’re basically “I wake up, touch you, you ignore me, as usual, I eat breakfast, as usual, go to work, as usual, everything is gray, everything sucks, as usual…”
The repetition of “comme d’habitude” (as usual) is almost like “so it goes” in some ways. In fact it’s a lot like it.
The guy who wrote it, aside from being French, was breaking up with this person. So you know, not much of a mystery where the mood of the original comes from.
burnspbesq
Landon Donovan pulls on a USA shirt for the last time tonight.
Karen in GA
@JPL: Thanks!
FlipYrWhig
@Calouste:
Definitely a step up from the usual same-family marriage.
Elizabelle
Yup. It was Inhofe.
burnspbesq
@Calouste:
Yeah, that was pretty cool. Who was it a few days ago who scoffed when I suggested that some state AGs might bow to the inevitable?
Just Some Fuckhead
I live my life with no egrets.
JCJ
@Sammie128:
I prefer the version where two alligators (or crocodiles) are talking and one says, “Egrets? I’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention.”
PurpleGirl
This time last week I was on my way to Hartford to help Cassie (of Cassie’s Kitten Kastle) at the Pet Expo on Saturday. Friday was set-up day. I stayed with Cassie Frdiay night. One of the cats (Mia) slept with me on the couch and there was a new kitten in the bathroom who I played with. I also spent some time in the kitten room, although she had the cam off. On Saturday the Expo went well. Cassie had 5 kittens adopted. And she got her shelter’s name out as a plqace to adopt in Northeast CT. Saturday night I stayed in a hotel. It was tiring but a good day.
d58826
Everytime I think the GOP congress critters have hit the bottom of the stupid mine, some one gets a bigger shovel. Sen. Vitner is opposed to Obama’s Ebola request because most of the money is going to be spent in (lights, camera, drumroll) Africa. Imagine that
Tokyokie
A few years ago, when we had an especially wet spring, a pair of egrets built a nest down by the creek across the street from us. It was cool to have them in the neighborhood. We also had some wild ducks nesting by the same creek around that time — one day I came home to find a pair of ducklings in my front yard, and I had to shoo them across the street and into the weeds so they could find their way back to the nest.
We only had the egrets for one season, and although the ducks were there for several years, we haven’t had them since the lots next to the creek were developed. Of course, the fools who built on those lots are going to find 6 feet of water in their houses at some point, but oh well. (Our house is on the highest point on the block, and the creek would probably have to get 20 feet above flood stage to get us, and with a large flat area on the opposite side of the creek at about 10 feet above flood stage, I can’t really see that ever happening. Not that we can get affordable flood insurance.)
Cervantes
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Not that it matters but the original (“For Me”) was in English.
It went nowhere, became French, and then became English again — if that’s the language Paul Anka was using, I can’t say.
As for Mlle. Gall, it’s my opinion that she was subjected to all kinds of trauma. Have you heard “Les Sucettes”?
Calouste
@burnspbesq:
I commented on one of yours posts saying that minor details like the rule of law and the cost of futile court cases haven’t stopped GOP AGs before, and indeed it hasn’t stopped the South Carolina and Idaho AGs. West Virginia is by my count the first state with a GOP AG to throw in the towel in face of the inevitable, Colorado, Nevada and North Carolina all having Dem AGs.
Calouste
@d58826: Fighting them over there before you have to fight them over here only applies to hued humans, not to viruses.
El Caganer
Worst sports memorabilia of the year: http://deadspin.com/some-fools-are-selling-darren-wilson-cardinals-shirts-1644787190?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_facebook&utm_source=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
Gex
@Mnemosyne: I have to move too.
Sigh. Kate left behind a big financial mess and now I recently discovered I’m on the hook for about $25k in back taxes she had.
So I’m leaving what is literally the perfect apartment to move in with a friend. And it’s killing me. It’s so depressing to walk the dog and be reminded of how perfect this place is and how much I love it. The patio overlooking the river, the park, the eagle nest, the dog park, being near downtown/dinkytown/NE, Main Street, St.Anthony Falls, fireworks viewed from the patio, and so on. It’s just what I’ve always wanted.
Just gave them my notice today.
God dammit. Kate, I’m really, really pissed off at you. You didn’t take care of the things you should have. I will be paying your debts for twenty more years. And now your tax issue is the final straw that pushed me over the edge and I have to make serious cuts. And it’s costing me one of few things in life that sort of makes me happy. The only other thing is the dog. Everything else has been going so horrible. I wish you would have cared about me enough to take care of me like I took care of you. The situation should have been reversed. You would have had it made.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Cervantes: Yeah I actually knew that but I couldn’t ever find the original-original either. Sort of assuming it had nothing to do with what are now the English lyrics though, which everything I’ve seen says that Paul Anka wrote after he heard the French one, in France, on TV.
Re France Gall, well she was traumatized to learn about the suggestiveness of the lyrics, definitely.
Trollhattan
@Elizabelle: Can we segue into “That’s a moray”?
Quaker in a Basement
@Sammie128: By the HIIIIIIIGH WAAAAY?
Trollhattan
Best day of some young lives: getting out of prison. In this case, best day interrupted fifteen minutes in.
My takeaway: You’re probably not likely to make a New Best Friend in front of prison, so take the damn train.
Cervantes
@Bill E Pilgrim: I’m sure you’re right: not only that Anka was writing to the tune only, but also that a translation might have been less tortured than his lyrics.
Still, why quarrel with success?
Trollhattan
@El Caganer:
Wow. Suddenly my “Sandusky” autographed tank top seems socially acceptable again.
Giants better TCOB and kick their asses in four.
Cacti
Alison Lundergan Grimes (D-KY): dead to me.
Wouldn’t answer whether she voted for the POTUS, then dog whistled about being a “Clinton Democrat”.
With friends like these.
…sigh…
PurpleGirl
@Gex: I’m sorry to hear of your problems. I have no advice for you but great sympathy.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Cervantes: Also it was the same French songwriter who wrote the first lyrics in English. Then he wrote the “comme d’habitude” lyrics in French. Just to be clear. I’d be curious to see those, but I mean I can’t imagine them resembling “My Way”.
@Cervantes: Oh I quarrel with success all the time :) Some of the most successful people are some of the worst at what they do. Just a law of nature, capitalism, and bad taste.
Really though my point was just how interesting it is that the morose, embracing sorrow version was very French and the success-celebrating English version was very American. Sort of a textbook study.
ranchandsyrup
Love egrets.
It’s our youngest’s 1st bday party this weekend. Gonna be fun. Lots o’ family in town.
Mnemosyne
@Gex:
Ugggh. We had family members who were Not Happy about the way my dad left things, but fortunately for us, he was a fanatic about taxes and made sure all of that was up to date. Have you talked to a tax lawyer to see if there’s any way you can get it reduced? This may be the one time when you can play the it’s not like we were married card and potentially benefit from it. I definitely wouldn’t just accept the debt if there’s any chance of getting it reduced.
(And my aunt-in-law almost managed to get the house she lives in sold at auction because she didn’t bother to pay the property taxes, which we were all pretty pissed about. It’s not like she didn’t have the money, she just didn’t feel like paying them.)
ETA: Also, too, you probably don’t want to, but is there any way you could ask Kate’s family to help pay down her debts? I know there’s a good chance they’re broke, too, but I wanted to put it out there.
Cervantes
@Trollhattan:
Don’t think, eel
Ain’t no big deal
Just make it real
And don’t think, eel
It’s a beautiful noise, man.
Cervantes
@ranchandsyrup:
It’s been a year?!
Damn, I really have got to get some work done.
Cacti
New Microsoft CEO tells women in tech: don’t ask for raises, have faith in the system that currently underpays you.
Botsplainer
@Gex:
Query: How’d that happen? Are you hung up on a joint return? Or is this something that Uncle Sugar is claiming against whatever funds Kate had to leave to you in her estate?
dr. luba
@Gin & Tonic: Funny, I always think of Sid Vicious when I hear the title. I think he had the definitive version of the song.
My youngest niece was elected to the senior homecoming court at her high school. I am missing the parade tonight (bad aunt!), since I work until 7 and it’s across town, but I will go by tomorrow to take some photos. Her mother tells me she has a date, but does not want to be alone with him……even for photos. She’s going with a group of friends. Also, too–the parents are much more excited about all this than she is (living vicariously). I don’t think she was even planning to go before being chosen to the court.
Elizabelle
@Cacti:
I thought the same thing, at first, but please check out the morning open thread. Botsplainer and others had some good insight on Grimes.
Bottom line: she’s politicking. Someone mentioned Jimmy Carter said some yuck stuff he repudiated once elected.
I can’t stand the disrespect for her president and party either. But beating Mitch in a state where Obama has a 30% approval rating is still — beating Mitch!
https://balloon-juice.com/2014/10/10/friday-morning-open-thread-good-news-on-voting-rights/
raven
fuck
KS in MA
Egrets–always marvelous.
Working this weekend because the overlords at the workplace get a bang out of scheduling multiple simultaneous deadlines without bothering to hire enough staff to meet them.
ranchandsyrup
@Cervantes: I hear ya Cervantes. Time flies by.
MattF
Second part of Ann Leckie’s ‘Ancillary’ trilogy just came out, so I’ll read that. The hero, Breq, is an AI who once occupied hundreds of bodies but is now ‘confined’ to a single human body. Lots of interesting stuff going on in the story– e.g., Breq has trouble distinguishing between genders, so she refers to everyone as ‘she’– and the reader generally never finds out the ‘actual’ gender of any given character.
burnspbesq
@Gex:
Is this Federal income tax? Have you talked to anyone about doing an offer in compromise?
Betty Cracker
@raven: Is this a college football-related expletive? If so, I bet I can guess which one!
raven
@Betty Cracker: Indeed. He’s done.
cermet
“Egrets? Seen them often the last few weeks. And rarely, a very large Crain like bird (Maryland area.)
As for the weekend, my fiancée wants me to take her and her best friend (also female – a friend from high school that recently moved back to the area) to a strip club (featuring only woman; while a “high end” place, I understand that it can include some routines as well… .) This woman has never been to any strip club (and really, who generally has?) and asked my fiancée to arrange it. They both insist that I must be there (That I understand since they do not want to be harassed.)
Well, I guess I will need a lot of dollar bills …artist do need to get paid for their performance, I would think. Got a feeling that it will be me doing the blushing … . I just wish a major film was out like, maybe Twenty Shades of Grey … no, wait. That might be worse … .
d58826
@Calouste:Vitner seems concerned that Obama is not protecting Americans from one dead man; therefore we have to spendthe money here. (sigh)
Bob In Portland
What others see.
cckids
@Calouste:
Out here on the left coast, they started performing same-sex marriages here in Vegas, baby! A state representative was one of the first to get a license.
MattF
@cermet: I took a girlfriend to a strip club once (at her request), and she had a reasonably good time. I agree that it is a good idea for women to go with a man, and that it’s a good idea for women to see what goes on in a strip club.
cckids
@Mnemosyne: You have my condolences; we did it in June, and I’m still recovering.
I will say, though, that the severe downsizing was a GREAT idea. From 3100 sq feet to 1350. Things aren’t perfect, but for the first time in 25 years, NO stairs!! My knees and my dog (with his bad back) are thankful.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Gex: I’m so sorry to read that. It’s heartbreaking. Dumb question: have you consulted counsel about negotiating the tax matter?
Tone In DC
That sounds like an… interesting evening.
Personally, I’m okay until a girlfriend wants to take me shoe shopping with her. I’d rather have major surgery without anesthesia than do that.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Anything interesting? I’m waiting with bated breath for an Amazon delivery of a weird mix of small items that reached critical mass at the same time: cell phone screen protector, pen refills, oven thermometer, ear plugs for swimming, etc. Be still, my heart.
Trollhattan
Am changing my former Official Position and declare I no longer welcome our robot overlords. Dear lord that bastard is fast.
gian
JPL open house this weekend
Origuy
@Mnemosyne: Weren’t you the one asking about voting, whether to vote in your old precinct or in the new one? Because I asked a woman I know who has been an election official for a long time. First she said you should call the elections office, but you did that. I don’t remember if you are changing counties. She said the new county may let you register at the new address if the move date is contractual (on a lease or purchase agreement.) Some counties (she’s in San Mateo) also have voting centers where you can use the machines in advance.
some guy
taking Some Kid to Gators versus LSU Saturday night. Gators need a decisive victory, but a win one way or another will be more than enough.
Mnemosyne
@Origuy:
Thanks! I’m staying within the same county — in fact, if our new place had been just a few blocks east, we wouldn’t have even left our US congressional district. There is one (1) early voting location in Los Angeles County, down in Norwalk, and they’re only open 8-5 Monday through Friday. I’m starting to consider it, though, just because it seems like such a pain in the ass to try and figure out another way to do it.
ETA: I finally decided to request a one-time Vote By Mail ballot. It’s less of a pain than driving to frickin’ Norwalk, and I will still be at the old address through the final date to request one.
Origuy
@cermet: I’ve been to a few strip clubs in my time. I’m not saying what that time is. Anyway, they vary a lot, so generalizations are difficult. Your friends are no more likely to be harassed than at a regular night club. The guys are there to see the women who are being paid to pay attention to them. However, they’ll be treated better by the women if there’s a guy with them.
Calouste
So I found out that in some National Parks it is legal to openly carry a gun, but it is illegal to hunt to discharge the gun. That demonstrates again that for ammosexuals it’s all about showing off their
pen1s substitutesmancessories in public.low-tech cyclist
Headed kinda sorta in your direction tomorrow, Betty – my wife and son and I are headed for Anna Maria Island for the week.
The weather is here, I wish you were beautiful…
Mike in NC
Looking out at the pond behind the house we can see egrets, herons, geese, ducks, ibises, and storks. Plus the occasional alligator. Quite a change from Falls Church, VA.
rea
“This way to the Egrets!” as PT Barnum used to say . . .
Shana
@Mnemosyne: Yes, moving sucks. I have found it helpful when doing prep work to imagine all the military families that have to move every year or two and how much easier I’ve had it by comparison.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Didn’t Manziel get popped for a similar offense and only sit out one game? Of course, he got busted in the off season…
@some guy: I hope the Gators can pull off a win of any magnitude. Luckily for us, LSU is pretty damn shaky this year. Still, if I had to put actual money on it, I wouldn’t like our chances. But hope springs eternal!
Trollhattan
@Calouste:
The Rs put that poison pill in some unrelated bill the Kenyan had to sign early in his administration. Something along the lines of “the federal gummint shall not deprive Patriots[tm] of their state-issued concealed carry permits when they enter National Parks.”
Open carry, I had not heard of and would question its legality. I can vouch that in the backcountry, the park boundary trail signs still say firearms are prohibited.
Betty Cracker
@low-tech cyclist: Try the Lazy Lobster on Longboat Key!
JPL
@Betty Cracker: He got off because he said he didn’t do it and the NCAA didn’t have proof otherwise. My word against yours. Plus he’s Johnny football.
Jebediah, RBG
@MattF:
Me, too, but it was a sleazy Springfield, MA place and she made it less than ten feet in the door before fleeing. I’m not sure what she was expecting but I guess it was too sleazy for her.
Jebediah, RBG
@Mnemosyne:
But Norwalk is so scenic!
Cervantes
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Yes.
Different exercise: Compare Lollipop (Ronald & Ruby, USA, 1957) and Les Sucettes (France Gall, France, 1966).
raven
@JPL: If I’m Todd I just say “fuck it” and get ready for the draft.
JPL
@raven: I hope he does. He has the ability to be drafted in the first round and make some serious money.
Jane2
@Karen in GA: Hahahahaha “IT’S EBOLA!”
Jebediah, RBG
@Gex:
I have no advice to offer but want to extend my sympathy. That is such an awful way to have a shitty time compounded. I really hope the suggestions of our resident tax experts will work out for you. Either way, so very sorry and I really hope it turns out better than it seems right now.
Ruckus
@Jebediah, RBG:
Norwalk, CA?
I realize this was snark but I think you went a bit too far.
Phylllis
@low-tech cyclist: My hometown!! Enjoy, Anna Maria is the best.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Cervantes:
France Gall’s Wikipedia page offers the fact that one of her songwriters had the delightful name Guy Magenta. His Wikipedia entry consists of the single sentence “Guy Magenta (1927–1967) was a French composer” with the notation “This page has some issues.”
Karen in GA
@Jane2: Yeah, I was having fun with the panic, imagining the panicked little bug-eyed chihuahua as a stand-in for some people I keep in touch with on FB.
Cervantes
@Steeplejack (tablet):
I actually knew him slightly.
His real name was Guy Freidline. He had a studio on Boulevard de Magenta, named after the famous battle.
MomSense
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Well played, sir.
Visiting colleges this weekend and next. Looking forward to getting some hikes in as both are in really nice areas. One of them is near a summer camp I went to when I was in Junior High School so I may go and see what the place is like now.
Tree With Water
I wish the Nobel had not been awarded to that girl today. They might as well have tatooed a bullseye on her.
Mustang Bobby
Me too. One of the simple pleasures of living on a “waterway” in South Florida. I get them along with their friends the ibises. (Or is it “ibi”?)
Cervantes
@Mustang Bobby:
Ibises.
Used to be ibides, even ibes, but never ibi.
(Since you asked.)
Mustang Bobby
@Cervantes: Thank you.
Mnemosyne
I probably shouldn’t even say anything, but … I got a nibble on some resumes I sent out. We’ll see if I manage to land an interview.
And my detractors should be cheering for this to happen, because it would leave me a lot less time to post during the day. ;-)
Trollhattan
Waiting for the microwave to finish stirring my lunch’s molecules I read the breakroom household cleaner bottle label. I am now reassured the cleaner is “GLUTEN FREE”
I’m going to reread my car’s owner manual and find out if that sucker is GLUTEN FREE.
Amir Khalid
We had a Prime Minister in Malaysia — Dear Dr Mahathir, my dad’s old friend from medical school — whose favourite English song was My Way. The joke here was that Dr M had his own lyrics: “Oh no, we don’t do that, we do it My Way.”
shelley
Not much. Got a recipe for Pumpkin rolls with cream cheese frosting I might give a try..
Trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
A buddy who decamped for the Sierra foothills gets frequent deer, the occasional bear and rumors of mountain lions through his yard. Wednesday afternoon, this was the scene at the top of his driveway. Lucky for them it headed the other way, down-canyon.
Iowa Old Lady
@Mnemosyne: Fingers crossed!
Calouste
@Trollhattan: The National Park’s website mentions that state law forbids open carry on the park’s busses, so that kind of implies that open carry is legal in the park in general under state law (with an open carry license, I guess).
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid: Such a kidder, that Dr. Mahathir.
Steeplejack
@Cervantes:
Interesting. Any insight on his (presumably) premature death?
Amir Khalid
@Trollhattan:
Holy moly.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Good luck!
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack (tablet):
All will be glad to know that I received my weird miscellany of stuff from Amazon, packaged in an equally weird miscellany of three separate packages. Go figure.
Just reloaded my Fisher Bullet Space Pen with a blue fine cartridge and already feel more productive. Next up: check the oven with the oven thermometer!
Unexpected bonus: I also received a DVD set of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Season 2 sent by an old friend in Alaska. O frabjous day!
Trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Pushes the “too close for comfort” concept to an entirely different level. The fire ignited along the interstate less than a hundred yards from their property. Had the winds been different they could easily have lost everything within the first thirty minutes. California is having an interesting year.
Cervantes
@Steeplejack: What makes you say it was premature?
Botsplainer
@cermet:
You have to buy them each lap dances. It is customary and expected that female patrons receive a lap dance, and better still if there is a private area that you can accompany them to in order to receive lap dances.
You’d hate to violate custom, wouldn’t you?
Steeplejack
@Cervantes:
Three score and ten, etc.
Jebediah, RBG
@Ruckus:
sorry… I used to be a courier and had to go to Norwalk all the time. Now I never have to go there, and I am OK with that.
Cervantes
@Steeplejack:
Ah.
Yes, well, he was forty. One day he up and bought an E-Type and promptly crashed it on the highway, two hours out of Paris — and died.
joel hanes
egrets … I’ve seen a few
Freddie Mercury and I see what you did there.
Ruckus
@Jebediah, RBG:
There are a number of places in SoCal that I don’t miss going to. Soon the weather won’t be worth the dehydration.
EthylEster
@low-tech cyclist: so do you pronounce it like “i’ve just met a girl named maria” or “they call the wind maria”? because my mom (a cracker herself) ALWAYS chose the latter.
scuffletuffle
@Jebediah, RBG: The Mardi Gras?
Jebediah, RBG
@scuffletuffle:
Yup!
ETA: A Balloon Juice comment thread is not the first place I expected to find somebody who knows the Mardi Gras… not even the sleaziest of Springfield’s strip joints! This was back before they started closing the front door, when you could see the some of the goings-on walking down Taylor Street.
I haven’t been back there in a very long time. Is it still there?
scuffletuffle
@Jebediah, RBG: Yes, and still delightfully sleazy, with occasional gunplay in the surrounding streets. Last time I drove by, there were two guys parked in front of it smoking a dubie
Jebediah, RBG
@scuffletuffle:
so I guess what looked like some attempts at gentrifying those couple of blocks failed?
(that’s going back a bit over twenty years)