What’s shakin’?
Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
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- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
A fresh place to drink your coffee and read the paper.
Ooh, it’s pretty – and so roomy! Thanks, CG.
You’re welcome…apparently the slacking lessons I got from FamilyMan are working too well…
How are you this morning?
I agree with SN. Nice and airy in here.
You’re back! Computer troubles all fixed?
Hi CG.
Nope far from fixed, but at least I can get on the net now.
Have you been working too hard as usual?
Heh. Working last week, playing all weekend, now it’s time to get back to work…How about you?
Relatives here again, taking care of FMom and slacking when possible. I’ve got the whole family coming here this weekend, so there will be little slacking this week.
The lawn doesn’t need mowing yet again, but I’m trying something new. I’m trying to think the grass down. I keep looking out at the yard, but I can’t tell if it’s working yet.
Good morning, CG and FM!
I sympathize with your PC troubles, FM. It’s a drag to be cut off.
Good morning! How was your weekend?
Hi CG.
Curly and I wend to the Berkshires again (sans kids, this time). Lots of housekeeping (the apt is being sold), but some relaxing as well.
Another baseball weekend for you?
Yep. Next weekend we get a little baseball break, with no game or practice Sunday, and then it’s 4 games in 7 days. It’s been fun, though.
Hi ask.
It is a drag for sure. I have to admit though, it adds a little excitement. It works and then doesn’t work. It’s one of those sitting on the edge waiting to see what will happen.
OK it’s been nice and airy and open in the cafe this morning, but it’s time for a bar. Who’s around?
Hey Manny.
I’ll be glad to have George fill that mug with any beer ya want.
hi FM. worked all weekend so pretty much out of gas this afternoon. i’ll take 27, please.
how goes it?
27 coming up. Sorry to hear about all the work.
It’s been going fairly well for the last couple of day.
You are in some serious need of slack time. Tell your boss to give me a call and I can explain it all. 🙂
I took a couple of Benadryls this morning before I went to school. All day long I was dragging. Dragging is actually more enthusiastic than I was, but you get the idea. I’m perkier now, but my poison ivy is beginning to itch again so this may be my most lucid thought of the day.
And then on the other “out of gas” front, I filled up today. Less than 10 gal. for more than $30. When gas hits $4/gal. this summer Bush’s popularity #s will hit the teens and his party will start trying to impeach him.
Or maybe it’s just pretty to think so.
Seeing as Benadryl is in a lot of the over the counter sleeping meds, I’m surprised you stayed awake. Poison ivy – I do feel for you.
With the gas prices, I’m just glad I don’t have to travel that much anymore. Boring, but one hell of a lot cheaper.
Hi Jim. Bummer about the poison ivy. See if you can get Andi to pick up some French Green Clay (which is really clay, and really is green, although I’m not sure if it really comes from France). It’s often sold as a facial mask.
It’s really great for quelling itchy skin and taking down the swelling – all without making you drowsy or supressing your bodies immune response.
because I’m a little worker-at-home bee and never go anywhere to pick up anything.
Not even for your itchy drone?
Think of the possibilities, you could even give each other facials. 😀
If my normal routine doesn’t clear it up in a few days, I’ll go looking for the rare earth treatments. I actually prefer a preventative treatment. I always wash off with rubbing alcohol when I come in from the woods. That and being very aware of poison ivy plants usually protects me.
When I was a kid, all I had to do was walk near poison ivy to come down with a case so bad that i would be receiving hydrocortisone shots for a week. That was just part of my summer, every summer, as a kid. I think I’m less sensitive now, but not enough to feel safe from the evil ivy.
On a more pleasant subject, did Luna get multiple admirers on your shopping trip?
Luna did. She also went for a lovely walk around the top of the Domain (a big sports ground and nature reserve covering most of a large hill in Hobart – great views from there) and galumphed with a very friendly Airdale Terrier.
I start snoring before I’m even through swallowing one Benadryl, let alone two – you have my utmost respect for managing to stay awake.
Poison Ivy is awful – the last time I got it this stuff worked really good for the itch and swelling – hope you don’t have to go for steroids [shudder]
I’ve had pretty good luck with Benadryl gel for drying out the blisters. I only took the Benadyl pills this morning because it was itching so badly. I’ve saved your link if things don’t improve in a few days.
We use Tecnu for washing right after you come in contact with it, and supposedly it also helps keep it from spreading too.
I hope it dries up quick.
This is just one of those patches I missed in wiping off. I probably had the oils on my hand and scratched my upper arm. I wiped off but didn’t think of just above my elbow.
I feel for you, I really do. I’m the type of person who gets rashes very easily. Amazingly, I’m also in the 30% of people who don’t react to Poison Oak, which was very lucky considering it was all over the property I had in California.
Here, I just have to watch out for the sword grass, which cuts you if you are not careful.
Should this thread be renamed “Death by a Thousand Plants!”
Hi all.
It’s another chilly, blustery sunny day down here. I think I’ll start with breakfast before launching into the booze. Cereal or toast? Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions.
Hi keres.
Booze and cereal go great together.
It will be getting to where soon I’ll be wishing for your chilly weather.
I’ll take your word for it. I’ll stick to milk and cereal. At least for now.
You can always head down here for a visit. We’ve got a comfy spare bed and all the amenities (even if they are usually under renovation).
Trust me keres, if I could come for a visit I would in a second. I’ve always dreamed of going into that part of the world. I would even be willing to let Luna have the spare bed and sleep on the floor. 🙂
Luna is so not allowed on the beds. We’d never get them back.
Keep your passport current and an eye out for cheap air fares – you never know.
On that note, Imogen and I just picked up some cheap fares to New Zealand and will be heading there mid-November for a 19 day holiday. Woohoo. Just think of the photos. 😉
Are you going to do any of the Milford Track?
Unfortunately, my bad back means I can only hike on very flat terrain and that I can’t really carry any weight – which limits us to day hikes. Maybe, if I can get in better shape, one of these years we’ll give it a go.
There are guided hikes, where I’d only have to carry my clothes, but they are very expensive and we’re trying to do this trip on the cheap.
I’m sure that are a lot of great day hikes. And lots of great flora and fauna to look at/take pictures of.
We’re still figuring out our itinerary. We want to see both islands. We’re flying into Christchurch on the South Island. From there we plan to head south towards the Fiords, and then loop around north to take the ferry to the North Island.
I’m currently downloading pdf’s from this site about “easy access” walks in NZ
I am looking forward to early December now for bunches of neat pictures. Are you going to both islands?
This is what we are currently looking at doing. We don’t really want to hire a car, and this would get us pretty much everywhere we want to go by bus, train, and ferry.
I guess first I need to get a passport and the air fares would have to be extremely cheap. Cheap as in, you can sit in the bathroom until someone needs it. 🙂
Hmmmmmmmmm. I’m not sure how you’d buckle your seat belt for take-offs and landings.
Well at least if there were mechanical problems while in flight, I know I would be in the right place for doing what I know I would do in a regular seat. 🙂
:O
While living in Europe I flew back and forth to the states many times, but it’s not something I would look forward to now. Haven’t they built a highways heading down there yet?
That would take one hell of a bridge to get across the Tasman sea.
As it is, the Kiwis complain about the Australian invasion.
What Tasman sea? I’m talking the Pacific. 😉
Sure, we’ll get started on that one right away. Or at least we will after we get the 15 kilometers of highway bypass the government’s been promising to put in between the nothern suburbs of Hobart and where we live for the last ten years.
Well honestly I can see the bypass before the Pacific. Anyway all those miles driving over water would be pretty boring.
Good evening/morning guys and gals!
Young asklet has been banished by his mother and will stay the next few days with me.
I’ll still have a virtual beer (or 27), please.
Coming right up ask. Aren’t virtual beers the best. God I could drink a hundred of em. 🙂
Hope the Young asklet isn’t in too much trouble.
It’s sort of the other way around; he’d had it with his mother and sister (both have been very busy lately) and banished himself.
Ah. A resourceful young man. 🙂
I agree, very resourceful. 😉
Hey, no drinking in front of the children. 😉
Then tell them to turn around. 😉
Hey, no drinking in back of the children! 😛
Easily enough solution. Uncle Bill’s patented coke bottle, or in this case now coke can. 😉
Hmm…want a few more? Young men, I mean…I’ll take the beer. 🙂
Hi CG.
George is on his way, but damned if he not drinking them faster than he can deliver them. Nothing worse than a drunk dog.
Don’t take that the wrong way.
Who’s in the gutter now?
I’m sure the boys would get along and have a great time, so he (they) are welcome.
I just get down to talking in the bar and every living thing in this house has needed me for something.
This is not slacking!
Hellloooo MM.
Those are beautiful. How have you been?
Hey, FM! Thanks! I’m okay, the CTS is much better, still struggling with a far less than satisfactory job situation, though happy to report that the guy who pissed in my drinking water at my last job was finally “let go” long after the fact. How are things in napper and slacker land?
I was thinking about you the other day wondering if you had found anything more suitable for work. I remember you saying that the piss guy was let go. Should have been one hell of a lot more than let go they did to the guy.
Things are not slackerly in slackerland. Relatives here now and the whole family here for Mother’s Day. Next week though. 🙂
This job seemed promising at first but it’s a tricky economy for fundraising especially for organizations that rely heavily on government funding — so you need strategic leadership vs. scapegoating your fundraiser when things aren’t working.
The jury is still out on whether my current boss is a bigger asshole than the last one, but at best it’s a close second. I’m looking around at teaching jobs, though it would be much less money.
I hope things soon get back to normal in napper and slacker land! I wish I could be there with you!
I wouldn’t know how to fund raise or teach for that matter. So you’re way ahead of me on that.
Maybe this boss is just having a bad decade. Oops it’s the beginning of this decade isn’t it. 🙁
I wish you could be down here too. I might need to open up a slacking spa. 🙂
Gee I miss the Walton family good nights, but I’m calling it a night. Mighty good lounge tonight.
Everyone have a good night in the pond.
Just a little goodbye to a very close friend. I used to have a blog of my own for this sort of thing, but that’s long since past.
Zoe wasn’t particularly old and she wasn’t at all sick, but some time around 3:30 this afternoon her heart stopped and she was gone before she could even close her eyes. My wife and I miss her terribly.
sorry Chris. I know how bad this sucks. I need to make an appointment to see my cats. Maybe some rote ritual will make you feel better. Sometimes that works.
Thanks Marty. This was totally out of the blue. Sheila emailed me at work asking me to call as soon as I could. She wrote that she would be crying, but that Jack was ok. I knew it was Zoe. Zoe was a stray and we found her together, so she’s always been something of a joint project, even though Sheila and Zoe didn’t live together until we got married, which was six or seven years later. Her first pet. Her first pet death. She’s lost more people than I’ve probably ever even known, but losing a pet is a little different. Certainly not worse, but different so it’s all new. When Zoe came into my life, it was right at the end of art school. I was at the point where I realized that what I was capable of, wasn’t ever going to be great and I was full of self hate. Having this weird little homicidal ally cat around really saved me, just a little bit, from myself. Even though things haven’t been peaches since then, I’ll always be grateful to Zoe for helping me through. I’m glad Jack got to meet her, even though he will never remember it and we had to keep her on the other side of a gate, for the most part, to control her homicidal tenancies.
I lost Boo a year ago yesterday.
I’m a little ashamed to say it, but it hurt worse than anyone else I’ve ever lost. So, I know.
You’ve talked about Zoe and the homicidal tendencies quite a bit.
BTW- I picked out my cat, Mandrake, because he was the only kitten in the litter smart enough not to be sitting in the litter box. Word to the wise, he has been, by far, the best cat I’ve ever known.
That’s the thing with a pet. It’s not conflicted. You’ve spent one or five or eighteen years in close contact and, other than the stray bowel movement or drunken stupor, everybody knows what score is. No overhang and it’s not complicated. That’s a hard loss. Always. No shame.
Never any shame. That cat was cooler than you. And now that cat is gone and you’re still here. It makes no sense.
I’m sorry, Chris. They’re supposed to have nine lives.
She did. I’ll tell you about the other eight some time. I watched that cat almost, but then fail to, kill herself repeatedly. It really doesn’t fit her type that she died of heart failure and, yeah, way she was way cooler than I’ll ever be. A kid can try, however.
I very sorry Chris. It takes a special sort of courage to love an animal. And yet, knowing that we will outlive them, and grieve them, we do it anyway.
Good morning, Andi.
asklet is almost done with breakfast and will head out in a few (‘I like to get in early’, he says).
Cool, sunny day.
Morning Andi and Ask.
It’s 9pm here, and the day is winding down. Its cold and blustery still, and just a bit sprinkling. Luna will no doubt want to sleep in, but I doubt she’ll ask to come in before 12:30am (unfortunately, I have to get up at least once sometime in the middle of the night to let the dog in – if I try to bring her in when we go to bed she isn’t sleepy yet).
Good morning, keres!
Sounds like you’re having a real autumn feel to your evening. Does she ever sleep outside (if conditions are better)?
Luna prefers to be outside, and sleeps outside most nights. Unfortunately, she has yet to grow her proper winter undercoat, but once she has she’ll only ask to come in if it is raining or if it freezes.
Good morning Andi and ask and good evening keres.
Hi FM. It’s 10pm and I’m off to bed. Have a good day, all.
I’m walking in the mornings now so it looks like I’ll get back just in time to tuck you in.
Good night keres and see ya Andi.
How’s by you?
I’m still half asleep. I thought you were walking out into the morning with the pack.
I’m doing fine and another hot day down here. How are you doing today?
We were out walking. It was lovely.
It’s still lovely down here, but I can see July coming and I’m not looking forward to it.
Back from your walk already and I just got up. I’m huddled a the kitchen table with a blanket over my shoulders like an old lady. It’s 50 outside. Damn, I’m southernized.
Heading off to walk in a few, but wanted to say hi.
I’m thinking this place needs freshening up…what do you think?
I agree. We got real chatty last night.
Reminded me of cafes of old. 🙂
Of course that doesn’t mean we’re chatty this morning.
Yup. 🙂
gotta go work — ta.
Well enjoy your fun filled work day. Gosh how I miss it. 🙂