Cup of Coffee

January 30, 2013: Back and Then Some

169 Comments

My scheduled eight-hour shift turned into a twelve-hour shift yesterday on my first day back. I know some of y'all do that on a regular basis, but on the first day after a long break, that was a hell of a thing.

169 thoughts on “January 30, 2013: Back and Then Some”

  2. I know the nation is full of cat lovers. Me...well, not so much. Last week, I came around the side of my house to find fluffy, licking it's paws and seemingly basking in the sunlight on my sidewalk. What was it sitting next to? A a freshly killed rabbit. I've had rabbits as pets, but never a cat. Let's just say that he didn't get to finish his meal.

    1. I, for one, keep my cat inside. She gets to go outside every once in a while in the spring/summer, but we have a fence and its under close supervision since she found out she could jump up onto the fence. Also, she would have been a feral cat if we hadn't found her, so we're part of the solution!

    2. Not a cat fan. BUT, if Runner daughter's dog Belle (or a pet cat, a pet turtle, or any kind of pet) killed a rabbit (or a squirrel, or a mole), it could finish the meal and I'd bring it dessert.

      1. I'm mostly* with you on the squirrel/mole dispatching, but having had rabbits as pets makes me biased.

        *They terrorize my garden & lawn, but I have to avoid the double standard because I'm a fairly vocal supporter of wildlife in general.

        1. I'm a fairly vocal supporter of eating wildlife.
          Especially those that eat my plants and fully disregard all the repellants that I use.

    3. Well, true. Cats should generally be kept inside, but did you throw it a party for murdering one of God's most hateful creatures?

      If there's one creature I hate in this world, it's a deer. If there's a second, it's a rabbit.

      1. Heh - I can appreciate the hatred (see above). I hunt deer and rabbits but I dislike feral cats and cat-owners who let their tabby's run wild more than I do nuisance wildlife. You have a sandbox growing up? I did. Cleaning out the cat sh!t before construction projects was not my idea of a good time.

        The distinction (I suppose) is the pet rabbits. On the other hand, I always felt that rabbits were a stupid pet. I wanted a dog but my parents were not interested.

        2. i totally agree about feral cats. they are nuiscances and overly enthusiastic killers. also, you are correct in your sandbox assessment. that was always a pain.

          that said, i strongly dislike rabbits.

      2. If there's one creature I hate in this world, it's a deer. If there's a second, it's a rabbit.

        There is something I adore about this sentence.

        I get the deer (hunter here), but I don't hate rabbits at all, but I don't have a garden for them to terrorize (well, not really... there's a garden on the in-laws' farm, but they weren't really a problem there for some reason). For me, if there's a second, it's probably deer. The first being mosquitoes.

        1. oof. if we're adding creepy crawlies we have to add centipedes, mosquitoes, and ticks to the front of the list - in that order.

          i dob't actually hunt. deer just suck. they terrorize gardens, they wander in front of vehicles, louis ck has the rigt idea about them.

          rabbits did nearly a hundred dollars of damage to our shrubs a few 6ears ago before we realized what was happening and were bright enough to get some fencing. now i shoot them on sight.

            1. I've got a pretty strong case of Chilopodophobia. Even thinking about them sends a chill down my spine. It's my only real phobia. Seeing a six inch one in Mexico when I was 15 probably didn't help things out at all.

            3. I can't even mention earwigs to my wife.
              Or ears and wigs within minutes of each other.
              Something about pinchers on their butts and faces.

              1. I couldn't place "earwigs" so I looked them up - Gross, but I don't see many of them.

                As for millipedes, our house is infested. The largest I've managed to kill was 3+ inches. I dislike them, even though this is their true nature:

                House centipedes are actually beneficial, as they capture flies, cockroaches, and other small household pests. They never damage plants or household items.

                    4. And I've had one that was nearly a foot on my arm

                      I will die having not clicked that link. I also think that I'll probably hover links from now on to make sure that no one tries to pull a Archiprostreptus Gigas version of a rick roll on me.

                    5. The image in the linked-to article isn't particularly terrifying. Just a millipede on sand. The image is composed so you can't really tell how long it is. It is obviously a rather large millipede though.

                    7. That is really odd. Though they are objectively less creepy.

                      Also, I've been considering precisely that sort of rick roll for you all day. I've held off so far. You're welcome.

                    8. Centipederolls are easier with a URL-shortening service.
                      Or, some really good rice and seaweed.

                    9. coincidentally, I had a delicious lunch at a ramen house today that involved seaweed. But no (identifiable) centipedes.

                2. Earwigs like to live in mulch, particularly wood-chip mulch.
                  EAR likes to garden, has little time for wigs (though she did wear a hot pink one last Halloween).

            1. Meh. I'm not so against any animal, though snakes and spiders are a little creepy. Mostly I hate confined spaces and feeling trapped.

              1. My snake thing is a full-blown phobia, though. I have recurring nightmares involving snakes dropping from trees around me, or being thrown at me, or crap like that. The worst part is, I have no idea why.

                1. I wasn't actually kidding about the claustrophobia thing either. It too is full-blown, so I know exactly that sense of panic. Here's hoping you're fairly successful at avoiding snakes in real life, if not in your dreams!

                  2. I happened to have known what you were talking about just by the latin name. I seen those a few times; they're very beneficial (especially when they stay mostly out of sight), and they're quick

                    1. That's shudderific, but is it fast? My best guess is my house centipede would run circles around your sluggish silverfish.

                    2. No, but if we're working outside and have the window open she'll just sit there and "talk" to us.

            4. HPR last spring and summer killed a bunch of snakes. He'd throw rocks at their heads.
              We encouraged this. We'd find them sunning themselves on our front step or in front of our garage door. Or hiding in our bushes.
              My wife kept the ice-chopper out all summer so she could take them out. (As far as I can tell, no truth that heads will re-grow unless the stump is burned.)

              They're not so bad, but when they're everywhere, when the bushes mysteriously move, it gets out of hand.
              There were spaces, under our garage, next to our garage, beneath our bay window, where they apparently used to winter. We've sealed them now, but I think they keep coming back looking for it.

                1. I got some good beer though.
                  Not sure what a generation is for garter snakes, but I think their frequency dwindled over time.

              2. snakes are welcome here. we had a pair of black rat snakes living under our porch slab a couple years back, and I see one every now and then out back. one did give me the willies a bit when I saw it shimmy into the low branches of a small tree.

              3. I recently heard about a case where the house was purchased during the winter and it was not disclosed to the buyer that it was built over a giant snake nesting ground. When snakes starting coming out of every nook and cranny in the house that spring, the buyers sued the seller for failure to disclose. It might just be a (legal) urban (rural) myth, but still... snakes all over your house!

                2. Our house in Virginia was out in the sticks (so to speak), maybe 2-3 houses per square mile. Lots of wilderness all around. Our first year in the house, I was standing in the back yard playing fetch with my dog when I heard a commotion in the undergrowth. We wandered over to investigate and saw a ball of snakes (between bowling ball and basketball sized) which seemed to be rolling down the hill. I don't know much about snakes reproduction and if it doesn't rattle, I'm pretty worthless at identification so we backed away.

                  I was thoroughly creeped out.

            2. That was discussed. But Snakes eating d-conned mice makes d-conned snakes which sounds horrible.

              1. Cos they'd act stupid and thirsty and end up in toilets and whatnot, I assume.
                D-con makes mice act like they've got rabies, except with hydrophilia instead of hydrophobia.

                Hydrophilia. If Def Leppard ever wants to make another album, I'll give them that title for $5.

      4. I assume the Times now gets its story ideas from reading the Oatmeal.
        Coming soon: an article about how great Tesla was and that Edison was actually a loser.

      1. I attempted to convince my family of the latter on multiple occasions prompting tears from my siblings and looks of concern from my parents.

        To this day there are "wild" rabbits running around my parents neighborhood that bare a striking resemblance to the lop-eared bunnies that we had as pets - horny escape artists.

      2. In my family,we butchered and ate our domestic rabbits. They're still pets until then, though- delicious, tender pets.

      3. I remember a politically-charged movie by a certain politically-charged filmmaker (who would only get moreso as time passed) which posed the question very pointedly.

      4. An old family story: My grandfather raised rabbits for sale and we always enjoyed getting to play with the baby rabbits when we visited as children. One time not long after we visited them, we were having dinner at home and had the following conversation:

        One of us kids: "This is good chicken."
        Mom: "It's not chicken."
        One of us: "What is it?"
        Mom: "Something that hops."
        My sister in a sad, desperate tone: "Kangaroo?"

    6. And there's this, which I just happened to read yesterday, which highlights sean's point about cats killing birds.

        1. Absolutely. Both of our cats are kept indoors at all times. One of them was a(n abandoned?) stray that I adopted that tries to get out now and then, but thankfully doesn't try that hard. The other was a rescue that seems to have little interest in the cold, noisy outdoors.

          1. Our cat was a farm cat for the first month of her life on my parents' old farm. When Linds and I adopted her, we made her an indoor only cat. Now the cat doesn't even try to get outside. You could leave the door open for a half hour and she'd do nothing more than peek around the corner briefly.

            She does 'talk' to us when we're working outside and have one of the windows open, though. It's adorable.

  3. CC to Will: We're working on the NOLA version of tater-tot hotdish. We'll let you know how it turns out.

    1. Ooh, most excellent. I know Sheenie made some tweaks to your Southwestern version, but the end result of you, her, and Dr. Chop collaborating was wonderful.

      2. Sausage, taso, roux, tater tots and crystal hot sauce so far. I'm not sure how baked shrimp will work with tots, although making nola BBQ shrimp may be the right call.... Yup. It's going to be good.

    1. I think Hoard coined the phrase himself: "If you need one yard, I'll get you three yards. If you need five yards, I'll get you three yards."

    2. i loved leroy too (my friend got a customized jersey with his number and "bad man" as the name), and i think the quote was "you want 1 yard, i'll get you 3. you want 5 yards, i'll get you 3."

      also, that sucks.

        1. If you needed 3 Archiprostreptus Gigases, he'd get you 9. If you needed 15 Archiprostreptus Gigas, he'd get you 9.

    1. Sheesh...you're sure, huh? I'm "sure" his family wishes he were here to comment on a presence or lack of regrets.

  9. If I ever own a restaurant (one of my dreams), I will have Old Bay seasoning next to the salt and pepper shakers.

      1. I was looking in my pantry and found a box of Rice a Roni and made it for lunch. I sprinkled some Old Bay on top for something different.
        Ive pretty much replaced salt and pepper with Old Bay

        1. I briefly worked a job where they used WebSense. It was hell. WGOM would work on and off. When it would be blocked it was because of gambling. Apparently the Hitman's exploits with jelly beans are picked up by the filter. Sigh.

    3. I have been considering having an SSL version of the WGOM, but I don't know if that would allow "bypassing" the filters or not.

  13. remember when "the shakes" were this little band that you'd probably never heard of (FTLT excepted)?

    Alright america, here's some news that we can all enjoy together live, from New York... on TV in two weeks...

    We're gonna be the musical guests on February 16 on Saturday Night Live!!! Christoph Waltz is hosting! So rad, thanks SNL for the huge honor.

  14. Sickels ranks the minor league systems.

    7) Minnesota Twins (17): Strengths: hitting. Oswaldo Arcia and Aaron Hicks will be ready to help the outfield sometime in 2013. Enormous upside in players like Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton, Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario. Weaknesses: lack of high upside arms although that's improved thanks to '12 draft and winter trades that brought in Alex Meyer and Trevor May. If new group of arms develops properly, this could be a top three system by end of '13.

    1. More importantly, the Twins are ranked well ahead of the AL Central teams, with the Royals the highest at 21.

    2. Royals (obvious their system will be a bit weaker this year since they traded most of it this offseason), Tribe, Sox, Tigers are all in the bottom 9

    3. So yeah, 2013 will be a good year to work on summer outdoor projects because the next few years might be devoted to watching baseball again.

  15. I love how the media reaction to the Ray Lewis PED story is to paint poor old Ray as the victim.

  16. the thing is that NFL players can take a 'banned substance' and get away with it because the NFL and the NFLPA has not signed a the HGH contract they agreed on a years ago.

    but a MLB investigation that leads to a clinic in Florida dealing drugs (and the press picks up on it) and baseball is still steroid stained.

    Deadspin story

    Football's drug problem isn't a problem because the NFL doesn't treat it like one. And Ray Lewis, who has twice been implicated in banned PED use? He's a respected veteran preparing to go out on top.

    1. Yep. And it's just a darn shame that this story had to come out now and spoil his retirement party. And you know, he just has to deny this, even if it's true, because hey, he's about to play in the Super Bowl. What else can he do?

      1. Not only that, but the 4ltr has already signed him to a contract to be on their network. So, a vigorous defense must be raised.

    2. I don't see why using banned deer-hunting supplies should be such a big deal. I mean, the DNR or its equivalent wherever he's hunting should bring down the full impact of the law, but I'm sure other footballers have committed more serious crimes and gotten away with it.

      Spoiler SelectShow

      1. I just saw a Yahoo headline that referred to the deaths in the Ray Lewis case as "unsolved murders". Uh, ok.

    1. The one time I ever clicked a link to a blog community about competitive skiing, there was a spookymilk. It used to be that he was one of the top ten links on Google for a while, but I haven't heard anything from him in ages so I assume he switched handles, or maybe died doing a little competitive skiing.

    2. Perhaps he's in everything.
      Like [spookymilk, please edit to name the actor with the most IMDB credits, thanks!]. Peter North. [Don't Google him. --spoons]

    1. I saw that study and I noticed what they didn't look at was how long the couples were married. It seems to me the longer couples are married the more men do the chores that are traditionally female (as the wives nag the husbands to get them to do it), and it would seem that the longer couples are married, the less sex they tend to have, so in the end as men start doing more "female" chores, the less sex they tend to have. That's my theory anyways.

    2. Crap, EAR pays the bills (though I fund the checkbook), and drives (family safety being a priority).
      I'll just cook and clean less to correct for that.

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