For the first time in nine years, I don't work through the middle of the night on Black Friday.
112 thoughts on “November 18, 2013: Reasonable”
Please keep folks in Washington Illinois in your thoughts and prayers as many people lost their homes yesterday in the storms. Our home was unscathed, but there were several homes in our neighborhood that lost siding, snapped trees, and flipped trampolines. I was home alone when the worst of the weather went over my house (Bloomington Normal). When the power went out, I came up from the basement briefly to get a flashlight and portable radio. I looked out our kitchen window and it was scary, The rain was white and sideways. I got my stuff and hustled back downstairs.
Our power was out for about 12 hours, and it was really strange to drive down the main strip of our town with almost all the businesses dark. Lots of clean up gonna be happening in the next few days. (not for our house but those around us). I forget, does anyone else here live in Illinois?
yup. we weren't in the predicted path, but we weren't far from it. i was a little nervous, but things thankfully never went beyond a slightly more windy storm than usual.
Storms were east of here, but we had high winds the whole day (I don't have to rake the yard now!)
Peak gust was 61mph at Spirit of StL airport
For those who I haven't told, I have a property in Buffalo (MN) that I have a renter for. Can't sell it yet because I'm under. Anyway, two weeks ago a big part of one of my trees fell over and crushed the neighbor's car to death. I had never met these neighbors before, so I went out that night to do so. The husband seemed pretty calm about the whole deal but the wife was a spastic mess.
I helped clean up some of the mess on their property to be neighborly (after cleaning up the stuff that landed on my property). They got my insurance info and my insurance company properly told them where they could stick their claim. Now my neighbors are upset that their insurance doesn't cover debris pickup or trimming the rest of my tree that hangs over their yard. They're also implying in some passive-aggressive text messages that my trees are not only a bother to them but to my neighbors AND the city. The neighbor now wants me to pay to trim the part of my tree that hangs over their yard. I'm going to politely as I can tell them where they can stick that, too. My tenants love my trees because they hang over the entire city of Buffalo and therefore they never need to turn on the A/C.
I don't know if any of our citizens have experience in this area, but I have a question.
Do I have any obligation to have my tree inspected? I know the law states that I can be held liable if I'm grossly negligent about the health of my tree. But I looked at the branches that fell off and they all seem healthy to me.
No experience here, so I have no advice, really. I just wanted to say that one day if I own a home, I hope that I view my neighbors' trees as a benefit to me and the neighborhood. At least you aren't neighbors with John Olerud. (Short version: Olerud bought a property a few years back, later decided that some of his neighbors' decades-old trees were blocking his view of the Seattle skyline, went to some neighborhood board and got them cut down. Sure made me think less of the guy.)
I don't know if you have an obligation to have your trees inspected, but some cities offer free inspections. The one caveat there is if they find a diseased tree it will be up to you to pay for treatment or removal.
That's what I thought, but I wonder if it depends on the city and/or location? My Dad (Coon Rapids) had an Elm with the ol' Dutch disease and the city removed it at no charge.
If it's an infectious disease like that, they tend to take care of it.
[All the usual caveats about legal advice.]
I cannot imagine that you have an duty to have an outwardly healthy tree inspected to make sure it won't fall on some weird neighbors' car.
The Wild just keep winning. Harding at 1.25 GAA. Man it would be awesome if he continued like this and wound up with the MVP.
Noticing a few new banners today.
Those area AWESOME. Off to pledge drive to the MAXX 'til it hurts!
My camera didn't give me very good quality last night. I'm blaming the lighting.
btw, Kareem reconfirmed my fanboydom last night. Dude is a renaissance man, and seems truly interested and invested in making the world a better place.
Holy man does the air in China suck. Every mucus membrane in my face is aflame. I already can't wait to finish this trip and get back home.
To be completely fair, there's probably a lot of clean air out in the countryside. The city air sounds pretty nasty, though.
I seem to remember when I lived in LA that SoCal would eventually have problems living up to clean air goals due to Chinese air wafting across the ocean.
Most likely, although I won't be venturing in to the country side. I'm in a "small" city until Wednesday (Xi'an, population of about 7 million) and it is brutal. It smells like industrial chemicals here, even in my hotel room. I was just not prepared for how bad it is.
Yeah, I had been planning on going there later this week. I think that plan is changing, but our office in China is about an hour from there.
I feel like the craziest thing from the Great Smog of 1952 is that they had to cancel some film screenings because they couldn't even see well enough inside to show a movie.
Oh man, that stuff was crazy. I remember seeing this link a while back (though I don't remember where it was posted) of that event and thought it was pretty interesting stuff.
If anyone is curious, here are a couple photos from my hotel room:
These were taken at about 7 am today. The forecast shows a clear, sunny day.
Ugh. You couldn't get me to breathe that crap for all the tea in, well, you know.
I wish I wasn't. I was told that this trip would be good for me as a learning experience. It may be, but I don't know that its worth the toll on my health.
NBBW was in Beijing in 1988 and the fog from the lignite coal-smoke was terrible. People were wearing masks back then.
I think what you are learning is that the people who sent you didn't want to go breath that shit.
If somebody offered to send menace in time to 1930s Pittsburgh or Victorian London, I'd probably turn that down.
that looks healthy.
I don't watch much football, but living in saints city mean that the nfl is hard to avoid if you choose to socialize on a Sunday in the fall. We were out for the second half of yesterday's game, and when Brees took that brutal hit near the end of regulation it dawned on me that the rules change do little to actually protect players. Certainly this isn't a news flash, but even when the rules are enforced, penalties leveed, and the ball moved down the field the player is still subject to a potentially brain injuring hit. I'm curious, but too lazy / don't really care, to see if there have been fewer injuries since the new protections have been put into place. Also, the saints let the refs, and poor execution from the 49ers, bail them out of a loss yesterday. Of course, no one in NOLA will admit that.
True to my half-bakedness, I missed the e-mail call for testimonials. I sent hj a note asking that I be included along with my proposed submission: Half-baked, I tell ya.
hj thought I was commenting on my missing the e-mail. Ha! I decided to comment a little further. One potential tack that I considered in my response was that I wanted to figure out what the Twins record has been since I started the old site. Answer: 767-766. Ha! Since July 17, 2004, the Twins are 1 game over .500! They won on July 17th of that year, so I can report that over the last 1,532 games, the Twins are playing .500 ball.
i thought that could be the case, but i erred on the side of caution. both were quite beautiful.
I also missed the call (but I'm over the butt-hurt of being neglected, thank you). Where can I send a snippet?
I didn't "miss" it, I just didn't respond in a timely fashion. But now that we all know how cool the project is, I suspect that hj will be up to his ears in testimonials until Christmas.
Its good to know we also have half bakef deadlines here, too.
There was a call?
two, actually
twayn: i sent it to the yahoo address i have for you.
nibbs: looks like you were straight up omitted. which is humorous as i referenced you in the email. forwarded now.
I'm forgetful/busy and totally forgot to send something. I'll try to write something today because well, I wanted to but it just slipped my mind. Feel free to change it to "I'm a giant butt" if you prefer.
Kudos, hj. The banners look awesome.
Indeed, those are great.
Awesome! Thanks HJ!
Dido.
Ah, that explains things. I use that account as a spam trap and only check it every couple of months. I'll send you my regular email address when I respond to it. Thanks!
heh, my yahoo account is my spam trap too.
This looks like a raft of product liability suits waiting to happen. [edit: also, $535!!!]
Enter, Hövding, the "invisible" helmet, brainchild of Swedish design duo Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin.
"Vanity might sound a bit stupid to talk about," Alstin says, "but if that is the cause of people not protecting their heads in traffic, it is a real issue that you need to address."
And, thus, what started out as a thesis project is now something that could revolutionize biking safety.
So how does it work? In a nutshell, it's not a shell for your nut. It's an airbag — one that's tucked away in a collar that cyclists fastened around their neck. When the collar's internal sensors detect a specific combination of jerks and jags signifying "ACCIDENT HAPPENING," the airbag deploys, sending out a head-hugging, air-cushion hood in a tenth of a second.
Pricing looks basically in line with avalanche airbags for backcountry skiing.
at that price, there should be a built-in cellphone included.
My siblings and I talked my parents into getting a reverse mortgage. They had really wanted to have something to leave behind for us, but we all had the consensus that we didn't need anything, and they could really use the money for their own expenses.
Daunting.
A shitty task, for sure. Too late now, I suppose, but next time ask for the name brand colon prep. It's not too expensive, and you only have to drink about half the volume of the generic crap. Mrs. Hayes tested & approved.
A shitty task, for sure.
*cough, cough*
*cough, cough*
Wrong exam, Doc. (And be careful: You definitely don't want to cough hard while drinking that stuff.)
I finally figured out what this was... Heh. I had to have the full works as a 25 year old. The first glass went down alright. The second glass went down a little more slowly. The third dose was a chore, and the fourth I nearly puked back up immediately. It's been nearly a decade and I still quiver at the thought. Good luck, and god speed (through your bowels) bro.
My first was in my late twenties, a screening after Pops' diagnosis. All the going (and going, and going, those old Energizer commercials be damned) and accompanying fluid loss made me really cold. That was the worst part of my experience. Not looking forward to another to get my disability claim verified, if it comes to that.
directions say to consume quite a bit of fluid interspersed with the stuff, to avoid dehydration. I considered beer, since it is a clear liquid. But decided to stick with broth. I did up a quickie Pho-style broth (packaged beef broth that I simmered for an hour with charred ginger, charred garlic, star anise, and allspice, then added brown sugar and fish sauce).
Heck,that broth sounds pretty good, no matter what else you've got to drink tonight.
This reminds me to ask if gin, tequila plata, or vodka count as acceptable fluids next time around.
I knew what that was without looking. I totally spookied that gif.
Don't forget that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
I have reached the "oh, god, there's more?" stage. About a pint or so left. The last two cups have been a struggle.
It's like killing a keg, but without the buzz.
dude, roll tide.
When I had a colonoscopy, they gave me some sort of powder to mix with clear Gatorade. It really didn't have a taste, but it got the job done. And CH, I agree, I got really cold, too.
yea, I was wrapped in a blanket all evening (well, except for the constant going to the bathroom part). And I'm rarely ever cold.
A while back, CH recommended 99% Invisible as a podcast. Excellent recommendation. I have enjoyed it immensely, but I'm not through them all yet because they have recommended other podcasts and I've dove into them, too. Thanks a ton, CH.
Agreed - it's great.
Just downloaded their entire catalog and will start listening tomorrow.
Glad you've enjoyed them, Boss. I've got a few other recommendations if anyone's interested.
I've been enjoying 99% Invisible as well. That and The Dirtbag Diaries have been my most recent mainstays in the commute.
I've been working my way through them as well. I almost wish they were longer, since I can't really get a good workflow going before I have to pick a new one (yeah, I could make a play list or something, but that's way too much work)
Mags, do you listen to BackStory, with US historians Peter Onuf, Ed Ayers, and Brian Balogh?
I don't, no. My history podcasts are Binge Thinking History (I'm once through them, but I'm slowly relistening to try to retain more) and the BBC's History Extra. I'll have to give BackStory a try, as my American history is actually pretty bad (at least compared to my Irish history, not necessarily compared to the general public).
Did anyone see this article in the strib over the weekend?
1. Kids don't tell their parents what they want for Christmas? Since when? Children must be a lot different than my kids from 10 years ago.
2. Hire someone who has no background in retail or toys to offer advice to a fortune 500 company?
This looks like a big P.R. stunt. Hire a former spy and then goose up the publicity: the resulting articles are a lot more valuable then the advice the spy is "offering."
My daughter has already supplied us with a hand written, detailed list of things that she wants for Christmas, including identifying the things she wants the most.
I suspect my daughter will be doing the same when she's older. For now, she's 2, so as long as there is a box to open, the contents don't matter.
If they really wanted to ruffle some feathers, they should have said they were hiring the woman to figure out what the hell wives/girlfriends want for Christmas. That is actually a mystery (to many of us.)
My in-laws request a list in November every year, if not earlier, so the boys are practiced at making up a wish list.
my cats won't be doing this any time soon (on the other hand, they are indoor cats).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YWSI4LgC9Q
Giants to sign Tim Hudson, apparently. If true, that would probably make them less likely to sign Ricky Nolasco, who the Twins are rumored to be going after. The Giants were too before the news of signing Hudson today.
One of the least favorite things about being a lawyer: receiving requests for referrals from old friends for divorce attorneys. Not that I don't want to help, but just getting that news is a bummer.
I'm now T+6 weeks to having to clerk in Family Court. I need a new job.
::shudder::
Yuck. I have an old classmate that does family law. I don't *know* if she's good at what she does, but knowing her generally, I expect that she is. I send all such referrals to her.
Have you missed the boat to specialize in maritime law?
I love you.
And yet no points were assigned.
I hate you.
+23.
that's more like it.
AHOY DREAD PIRATE
I have a GW and Macalester email for you. Is either of those current? Hit me up at acm006-->googledmail
In light of our recent entertainment by our own GM's words about big contracts, this story got me giggling:
Matt Wieters rumors: Orioles catcher asked for 'Joe Mauer' money
Wieters moved to first base?
yeah, that's about the winner right there.
And that link led me to this. And then to this. Nolasco and Arroyo? How much does that improve the starting rotation for the Twins if both of those happen?
Well they'd have 2 new starters, so that's two more than they've got otherwise.
Zing!
After putting it off for some time now, I called the vet today and scheduled an appointment to have our dog put to sleep. Gus (named after Augustus McCrea in Lonesome Dove) is a Yorkie/Bichon mix (puppy mill origins, I'm pretty sure) that we got almost fifteen years ago. The girls and wife absolutely adored him, and there was a time when he was the life of the party. But age takes a toll. He's now completely blind, mostly deaf, has a compromised immune system that's left him with itchy sores and lesions, and over the past few months he's become increasingly incontinent. His hips gave out a couple of years ago to the point he couldn't navigate the stairs, so we've been carrying him up and down to put him out all that time. We love him dearly but his quality of life has deteriorated to the point that we just can't justify letting it go on except for purely selfish and sentimental reasons. So Wednesday afternoon we'll be saying our last goodbyes and sitting with him through the end. I have to tell you all I'm not looking forward to it. He's been a good, loyal member of the family for so long it's going to be a big adjustment when he's gone.
Man, that's the shits. Best wishes for your final days with your pet.
Sorry to see this, Twayn. Letting go of a family member you can't explain things to is tough.
So sorry, Twayn.
One of the very few times I've seen my dad cry is when he had to put our dog down. You are in our prayers.
Bud lite lime cranbarita? I would rather drink another gallon of colon blow.
Ok, I think I want to change my WGOM statement, you guys. Reading this discussion and thinking about the discussion when I had my procedure makes this quite the corner of the 'nets.
Dammit, this was supposed to be below the colon discussion. Either blackberrys are the worst, or the paint fumes that make up the air here are really getting to me.
Please keep folks in Washington Illinois in your thoughts and prayers as many people lost their homes yesterday in the storms. Our home was unscathed, but there were several homes in our neighborhood that lost siding, snapped trees, and flipped trampolines. I was home alone when the worst of the weather went over my house (Bloomington Normal). When the power went out, I came up from the basement briefly to get a flashlight and portable radio. I looked out our kitchen window and it was scary, The rain was white and sideways. I got my stuff and hustled back downstairs.
Our power was out for about 12 hours, and it was really strange to drive down the main strip of our town with almost all the businesses dark. Lots of clean up gonna be happening in the next few days. (not for our house but those around us). I forget, does anyone else here live in Illinois?
yup. we weren't in the predicted path, but we weren't far from it. i was a little nervous, but things thankfully never went beyond a slightly more windy storm than usual.
Storms were east of here, but we had high winds the whole day (I don't have to rake the yard now!)
Peak gust was 61mph at Spirit of StL airport
For those who I haven't told, I have a property in Buffalo (MN) that I have a renter for. Can't sell it yet because I'm under. Anyway, two weeks ago a big part of one of my trees fell over and crushed the neighbor's car to death. I had never met these neighbors before, so I went out that night to do so. The husband seemed pretty calm about the whole deal but the wife was a spastic mess.
I helped clean up some of the mess on their property to be neighborly (after cleaning up the stuff that landed on my property). They got my insurance info and my insurance company properly told them where they could stick their claim. Now my neighbors are upset that their insurance doesn't cover debris pickup or trimming the rest of my tree that hangs over their yard. They're also implying in some passive-aggressive text messages that my trees are not only a bother to them but to my neighbors AND the city. The neighbor now wants me to pay to trim the part of my tree that hangs over their yard. I'm going to politely as I can tell them where they can stick that, too. My tenants love my trees because they hang over the entire city of Buffalo and therefore they never need to turn on the A/C.
I don't know if any of our citizens have experience in this area, but I have a question.
Do I have any obligation to have my tree inspected? I know the law states that I can be held liable if I'm grossly negligent about the health of my tree. But I looked at the branches that fell off and they all seem healthy to me.
No experience here, so I have no advice, really. I just wanted to say that one day if I own a home, I hope that I view my neighbors' trees as a benefit to me and the neighborhood. At least you aren't neighbors with John Olerud. (Short version: Olerud bought a property a few years back, later decided that some of his neighbors' decades-old trees were blocking his view of the Seattle skyline, went to some neighborhood board and got them cut down. Sure made me think less of the guy.)
I don't know if you have an obligation to have your trees inspected, but some cities offer free inspections. The one caveat there is if they find a diseased tree it will be up to you to pay for treatment or removal.
That's what I thought, but I wonder if it depends on the city and/or location? My Dad (Coon Rapids) had an Elm with the ol' Dutch disease and the city removed it at no charge.
If it's an infectious disease like that, they tend to take care of it.
[All the usual caveats about legal advice.]
I cannot imagine that you have an duty to have an outwardly healthy tree inspected to make sure it won't fall on some weird neighbors' car.
The Wild just keep winning. Harding at 1.25 GAA. Man it would be awesome if he continued like this and wound up with the MVP.
Noticing a few new banners today.
Those area AWESOME. Off to pledge drive to the MAXX 'til it hurts!
My camera didn't give me very good quality last night. I'm blaming the lighting.
btw, Kareem reconfirmed my fanboydom last night. Dude is a renaissance man, and seems truly interested and invested in making the world a better place.
Holy man does the air in China suck. Every mucus membrane in my face is aflame. I already can't wait to finish this trip and get back home.
To be completely fair, there's probably a lot of clean air out in the countryside. The city air sounds pretty nasty, though.
I seem to remember when I lived in LA that SoCal would eventually have problems living up to clean air goals due to Chinese air wafting across the ocean.
Most likely, although I won't be venturing in to the country side. I'm in a "small" city until Wednesday (Xi'an, population of about 7 million) and it is brutal. It smells like industrial chemicals here, even in my hotel room. I was just not prepared for how bad it is.
At least you aren't in Shanghai:
......
Yeah, I had been planning on going there later this week. I think that plan is changing, but our office in China is about an hour from there.
I feel like the craziest thing from the Great Smog of 1952 is that they had to cancel some film screenings because they couldn't even see well enough inside to show a movie.
Oh man, that stuff was crazy. I remember seeing this link a while back (though I don't remember where it was posted) of that event and thought it was pretty interesting stuff.
If anyone is curious, here are a couple photos from my hotel room:
These were taken at about 7 am today. The forecast shows a clear, sunny day.
Ugh. You couldn't get me to breathe that crap for all the tea in, well, you know.
I wish I wasn't. I was told that this trip would be good for me as a learning experience. It may be, but I don't know that its worth the toll on my health.
NBBW was in Beijing in 1988 and the fog from the lignite coal-smoke was terrible. People were wearing masks back then.
I think what you are learning is that the people who sent you didn't want to go breath that shit.
If somebody offered to send menace in time to 1930s Pittsburgh or Victorian London, I'd probably turn that down.
that looks healthy.
I don't watch much football, but living in saints city mean that the nfl is hard to avoid if you choose to socialize on a Sunday in the fall. We were out for the second half of yesterday's game, and when Brees took that brutal hit near the end of regulation it dawned on me that the rules change do little to actually protect players. Certainly this isn't a news flash, but even when the rules are enforced, penalties leveed, and the ball moved down the field the player is still subject to a potentially brain injuring hit. I'm curious, but too lazy / don't really care, to see if there have been fewer injuries since the new protections have been put into place. Also, the saints let the refs, and poor execution from the 49ers, bail them out of a loss yesterday. Of course, no one in NOLA will admit that.
True to my half-bakedness, I missed the e-mail call for testimonials. I sent hj a note asking that I be included along with my proposed submission: Half-baked, I tell ya.
hj thought I was commenting on my missing the e-mail. Ha! I decided to comment a little further. One potential tack that I considered in my response was that I wanted to figure out what the Twins record has been since I started the old site. Answer: 767-766. Ha! Since July 17, 2004, the Twins are 1 game over .500! They won on July 17th of that year, so I can report that over the last 1,532 games, the Twins are playing .500 ball.
i thought that could be the case, but i erred on the side of caution. both were quite beautiful.
I also missed the call (but I'm over the butt-hurt of being neglected, thank you). Where can I send a snippet?
I didn't "miss" it, I just didn't respond in a timely fashion. But now that we all know how cool the project is, I suspect that hj will be up to his ears in testimonials until Christmas.
Its good to know we also have half bakef deadlines here, too.
There was a call?
two, actually
twayn: i sent it to the yahoo address i have for you.
nibbs: looks like you were straight up omitted. which is humorous as i referenced you in the email. forwarded now.
I'm forgetful/busy and totally forgot to send something. I'll try to write something today because well, I wanted to but it just slipped my mind. Feel free to change it to "I'm a giant butt" if you prefer.
Kudos, hj. The banners look awesome.
Indeed, those are great.
Awesome! Thanks HJ!
Dido.
Ah, that explains things. I use that account as a spam trap and only check it every couple of months. I'll send you my regular email address when I respond to it. Thanks!
heh, my yahoo account is my spam trap too.
This looks like a raft of product liability suits waiting to happen. [edit: also, $535!!!]
Pricing looks basically in line with avalanche airbags for backcountry skiing.
at that price, there should be a built-in cellphone included.
WGOM rage already done.
so, is NPR cribbing from us? 🙂
Can't wait for the first person to whack into a low hanging tree branch. Where's your internal sensor for that?!
A "veil of oblivion."
I guess I'm above average. It probably helps to have parents approaching the end of their runs who have assets to disperse.
My siblings and I talked my parents into getting a reverse mortgage. They had really wanted to have something to leave behind for us, but we all had the consensus that we didn't need anything, and they could really use the money for their own expenses.
Daunting.
A shitty task, for sure. Too late now, I suppose, but next time ask for the name brand colon prep. It's not too expensive, and you only have to drink about half the volume of the generic crap. Mrs. Hayes tested & approved.
*cough, cough*
Wrong exam, Doc. (And be careful: You definitely don't want to cough hard while drinking that stuff.)
I finally figured out what this was... Heh. I had to have the full works as a 25 year old. The first glass went down alright. The second glass went down a little more slowly. The third dose was a chore, and the fourth I nearly puked back up immediately. It's been nearly a decade and I still quiver at the thought. Good luck, and god speed (through your bowels) bro.
My first was in my late twenties, a screening after Pops' diagnosis. All the going (and going, and going, those old Energizer commercials be damned) and accompanying fluid loss made me really cold. That was the worst part of my experience. Not looking forward to another to get my disability claim verified, if it comes to that.
directions say to consume quite a bit of fluid interspersed with the stuff, to avoid dehydration. I considered beer, since it is a clear liquid. But decided to stick with broth. I did up a quickie Pho-style broth (packaged beef broth that I simmered for an hour with charred ginger, charred garlic, star anise, and allspice, then added brown sugar and fish sauce).
Heck,that broth sounds pretty good, no matter what else you've got to drink tonight.
This reminds me to ask if gin, tequila plata, or vodka count as acceptable fluids next time around.
ok, I'm laughing.
I knew what that was without looking. I totally spookied that gif.
Don't forget that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
I have reached the "oh, god, there's more?" stage. About a pint or so left. The last two cups have been a struggle.
It's like killing a keg, but without the buzz.
dude, roll tide.
When I had a colonoscopy, they gave me some sort of powder to mix with clear Gatorade. It really didn't have a taste, but it got the job done. And CH, I agree, I got really cold, too.
yea, I was wrapped in a blanket all evening (well, except for the constant going to the bathroom part). And I'm rarely ever cold.
A while back, CH recommended 99% Invisible as a podcast. Excellent recommendation. I have enjoyed it immensely, but I'm not through them all yet because they have recommended other podcasts and I've dove into them, too. Thanks a ton, CH.
Agreed - it's great.
Just downloaded their entire catalog and will start listening tomorrow.
Glad you've enjoyed them, Boss. I've got a few other recommendations if anyone's interested.
I've been enjoying 99% Invisible as well. That and The Dirtbag Diaries have been my most recent mainstays in the commute.
I've been working my way through them as well. I almost wish they were longer, since I can't really get a good workflow going before I have to pick a new one (yeah, I could make a play list or something, but that's way too much work)
Mags, do you listen to BackStory, with US historians Peter Onuf, Ed Ayers, and Brian Balogh?
I don't, no. My history podcasts are Binge Thinking History (I'm once through them, but I'm slowly relistening to try to retain more) and the BBC's History Extra. I'll have to give BackStory a try, as my American history is actually pretty bad (at least compared to my Irish history, not necessarily compared to the general public).
Did anyone see this article in the strib over the weekend?
http://www.startribune.com/business/232213241.html
I call bullshit on a number of fronts:
1. Kids don't tell their parents what they want for Christmas? Since when? Children must be a lot different than my kids from 10 years ago.
2. Hire someone who has no background in retail or toys to offer advice to a fortune 500 company?
This looks like a big P.R. stunt. Hire a former spy and then goose up the publicity: the resulting articles are a lot more valuable then the advice the spy is "offering."
My daughter has already supplied us with a hand written, detailed list of things that she wants for Christmas, including identifying the things she wants the most.
I suspect my daughter will be doing the same when she's older. For now, she's 2, so as long as there is a box to open, the contents don't matter.
If they really wanted to ruffle some feathers, they should have said they were hiring the woman to figure out what the hell wives/girlfriends want for Christmas. That is actually a mystery (to many of us.)
My in-laws request a list in November every year, if not earlier, so the boys are practiced at making up a wish list.
my cats won't be doing this any time soon (on the other hand, they are indoor cats).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YWSI4LgC9Q
Giants to sign Tim Hudson, apparently. If true, that would probably make them less likely to sign Ricky Nolasco, who the Twins are rumored to be going after. The Giants were too before the news of signing Hudson today.
One of the least favorite things about being a lawyer: receiving requests for referrals from old friends for divorce attorneys. Not that I don't want to help, but just getting that news is a bummer.
I'm now T+6 weeks to having to clerk in Family Court. I need a new job.
::shudder::
Yuck. I have an old classmate that does family law. I don't *know* if she's good at what she does, but knowing her generally, I expect that she is. I send all such referrals to her.
Have you missed the boat to specialize in maritime law?
I love you.
And yet no points were assigned.
I hate you.
+23.
that's more like it.
AHOY DREAD PIRATE
I have a GW and Macalester email for you. Is either of those current? Hit me up at acm006-->googledmail
In light of our recent entertainment by our own GM's words about big contracts, this story got me giggling:
Wieters moved to first base?
yeah, that's about the winner right there.
And that link led me to this. And then to this. Nolasco and Arroyo? How much does that improve the starting rotation for the Twins if both of those happen?
Well they'd have 2 new starters, so that's two more than they've got otherwise.
Zing!
After putting it off for some time now, I called the vet today and scheduled an appointment to have our dog put to sleep. Gus (named after Augustus McCrea in Lonesome Dove) is a Yorkie/Bichon mix (puppy mill origins, I'm pretty sure) that we got almost fifteen years ago. The girls and wife absolutely adored him, and there was a time when he was the life of the party. But age takes a toll. He's now completely blind, mostly deaf, has a compromised immune system that's left him with itchy sores and lesions, and over the past few months he's become increasingly incontinent. His hips gave out a couple of years ago to the point he couldn't navigate the stairs, so we've been carrying him up and down to put him out all that time. We love him dearly but his quality of life has deteriorated to the point that we just can't justify letting it go on except for purely selfish and sentimental reasons. So Wednesday afternoon we'll be saying our last goodbyes and sitting with him through the end. I have to tell you all I'm not looking forward to it. He's been a good, loyal member of the family for so long it's going to be a big adjustment when he's gone.
Man, that's the shits. Best wishes for your final days with your pet.
Sorry to see this, Twayn. Letting go of a family member you can't explain things to is tough.
So sorry, Twayn.
One of the very few times I've seen my dad cry is when he had to put our dog down. You are in our prayers.
Ladies and gents, I give you Cliste
Bud lite lime cranbarita? I would rather drink another gallon of colon blow.
Ok, I think I want to change my WGOM statement, you guys. Reading this discussion and thinking about the discussion when I had my procedure makes this quite the corner of the 'nets.
Dammit, this was supposed to be below the colon discussion. Either blackberrys are the worst, or the paint fumes that make up the air here are really getting to me.