I have no desire to declaw the local crew, so the alternative is to clip then glue some pretty glittery claw covers (okay, I ordered it that way) over them. It's basically supergluing plastic and in this case pretty fantastic sheaths over the claws.
So, uh, how are you customizing your loved ones these days?
Minor league day game: Cedar Rapids takes on Lansing at noon today with Anthony Marzi (3-0, 1.37) going for the Kernels.
I may end up accessorizing mine similarly, but thus far have tolerated the full claw experience.
At first glance I thought this CoC said "Caligulizing" and was worried what that might entail.
I was unaware this was even an option. We did have our cat declawed, but that was a long time ago and I hadn't really done any research on it, I just thought it was a thing that was done. Now that I know what the process entails, we've passed up on a couple opportunities to add another cat to the family because I won't declaw again and we've got nice, leather furniture with a replacement plan that doesn't cover pet damage. Knowing about a product like this I may reconsider in the future.
Yeah, I didn't look into the process at all prior to declawing ours. Then I looked into it a bit and felt her paws and...oof... sorry, Zoë.
On the other hand, she was pulled from the life of an outdoor cat to a house where she's been pampered to the nth degree for the last 10 years, so hopefully I've made the tradeoff at least somewhat worth it.
Abby's claws got infected after the procedure and puffed up to at least double in size. It was really unpleasant. But similarly, she was found in a heat vent at my MIL's so her life would otherwise be much, much worse if we didn't bring her home.
We declawed the Girl, as we had our first (Demon Hellspawn). Then, likewise, looked into it more. Biggus Dickus avoided that fate. The Mrs just clips him every couple of weeks. He mostly only wrecks his cat tree and post, plus one chair that the Mrs wants to replace anyways.
Besides my horrible allergies, another reason I feel like I wouldn't want to own a cat is that y'all's cats seem to have earned the nicknames Biggus Dickus and Shithead.
The only nickname mine has earned is "necktie" because her preferred night time sleeping position is my chest. For the most part, she's not very mischievous in comparison to the others here.
This exact thought just occurred to me, but you put it much more elegantly.
Our boy cat (actual name is Ivan as in Ivan the Terrible because he appears to be a Russian Blue) needs attention. All. The. Time. He stalks and chases the Girl, pouncing on her unannounced. When going down our stairs, if she sees him on one side (our landing splits so one can go into the living room or family room), she will go the other way to avoid him.
We play with him a lot, but he is insatiable. And incorrigible.
The nicknames for the two we have now require more backstory than anyone could possibly care about, but both are positive & affectionate.
The recently deceased cat was too stupid to live with a healthy dose of mental peculiarities, something like the Upper Class Twit of the Year, and so was nicknamed accordingly: Captain Turdblossom von Poopinpants, Fifth Earl of Derpingberry.
Our current dog, Harri, is more fully known as Harriet M. Barksdale. (M stands for Monster because she looks like a hairy monster from a kids' book).
Our previous dog was Hildy Louise Roofertoots, and my dog growing up was Guinness Dingle of Lisdoonvarna.
Corporal Fuzzington and Samushu. The latter stalks the former for some reason. Fuzz used to be passive about it, but now they're equals.
We did Soft Claws (or whatever they're called) for a number of years on all three because the oldest cat was a destructive jackass, and it wasn't "fair" to not do it with all three. When he passed we basically stopped and haven't had a significant issue since then. The now-oldest has excellent claw manners, while the younger one is pretty good, with the occasional cringe-inducing jump onto the arm of the nice couch because he's a galoot who needs to lose a few pounds.
We did get a cat tree, but never really trained her on the scratching posts on it. The main motivation was to prevent her from climbing in the dang xmas tree (which worked really well). We only did the front claws, though, so I get to deal with the "leap from off your chest" that has caused me to scream in pain in the middle of the night more often than I would like.
Training? A cat?
That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.
Good point: "we never really attempted to "train" her on the cat tree."
I got a cat post to offer a better option than the arm of a couch and the then sole cat just switched over.
Growing up, both cats got declawed because it was the American thing to do. After I learned about it, I knew I couldn't do that to any future cat and didn't to the one I "rescued". Then we got another cat and the shelter forbade declawing in the adoption papers. The first cat is great and only destroys things if he doesn't have other options, like a cat post. The second only destroys things if he wants your attention. Unfortunately, that's always. With all wood floors now, it's less of a problem. He really liked the carpet.
Cat's can totally be trained. It just looks a lot more like how you teach an 2 year old kid...
i also used to use a spray bottle with the boy.
we had a cat that all the suddenly started using the toilet. no idea how or why it happened, it just took it upon itself.
You have to say the same thing over and over six times then give up in exasperation?
I got soft claws or whatever for my cats back in 2005 and the cat instantly just ate them off every time. So I just coped with the carpet, furniture, and door damage. One trick for door frames, wall corners was to put double-sided tape on them. My cats unlearned clawing wood in a big hurry.
I saw that it said claw, but was really struggling to figure out how or why someone would want to decorate a crab or a hammer.
It took me 10 minutes to realize this wasn't about crabs
that would be this:
This video of a free diver in the world's deepest indoor pool is fascinating. More info on the dive (and the pool) here.
Before I clicked the link I assumed that pool was in some kind (dive/rescue, space, etc) training facility. I wonder what it costs to artificially heat a volume of water that large to 93ºF.
I wonder if they use geothermal heating too. Once you heat up that water, assuming it's insulated well, it won't cool off quickly.
I am surprised by my physiological response to watching that video.
I do not like it.
I will not click link.
I will not watch again.
I think I'm more impressed by the videographer. She did the entire thing holding her breath too.
I don't know what's going on anymore
Nevermind me.
I hadn't heard about The Athletic before, but it's an ad-free, subscription sports site.
I'm intrigued, but it's only in a few cities and slowly expanding. Minneapolis is not only of those cities yet.
Or, in the case of the STrib, an entire staff of sportswriters. Of course, there are a number of longstanding baseball bloggers who fit the cantankerous, broken-record, or stuck in 2006 description at this point. That makes me love access to someone like Jeff Sullivan all the more, because even if he doesn't always write about teams I follow, he helps keep me interested in baseball itself.
I heard this article today on NPR about the Kansas City Royals and thought it was cool. I haven't heard of the Twins doing this. My son might sit through a whole game if they did (he doesn't have Autism, but no one accomodates his type of similar behavior disorder, so we'll just call it that):
http://kmuw.org/post/kansas-city-royals-take-baby-steps-accommodate-people-autism
Look! It's baseball related! Am I doing this WGOM thing right!?
What's this button do?
Huh. That button did nothing.
Will you stop playing with the buttons?? You're going to break something!
😛
Good on the Royals for voluntarily looking for ways to make their games more accessible to folks.
Thinking about the Twins, sitting in the left field bleachers was difficult for me, primarily because the area was so saturated with noise. The deck above seems to trap sound, especially from the PAs, and the folks (particularly kids) in the row behind can have the effect of talking right over your shoulder. There were a couple times I felt overwhelmed, and none of them from crowd reactions to a play on the field. Knowing this now, I would not buy tickets in that area if I was attending with someone to who could have a negative experience from that environment.
That's a really good idea.
I remember when we went to San Diego, they had a big open spot just behind right-centerfield (a bit of Google-Fu calls it the "Picnic Hill" at the "Park at the Park"). It has a smaller jumbotron and a (reduced) view of the field.
$15 seems a little spendy for such a thing, but it's actually a really cool idea.
Petco also has a very reasonably priced "All you can eat" section with decent seating in right field. I'm a fan of the whole stadium experience.
I really like that ballpark and would gladly go back to a game if I'm ever back in San Diego. Like the LOL, it's a modern-era park that eschews much of the faux historical architecture (Western Metal being an actual historic structure that couldn't be moved, unlike the Showley Bros. Candy Factory where Park in the Park is now).
24 months to plan and move.
Raley Field (home of the River Cats) has a family picnic area occupying most if what would have been the right field bleachers.
That's the
codebutton. It formats things differently, like B or I. Primarily useful when displaying code samples.Cool article.
Twins get Garcia, Recker for Huascar Ynoa. Well, that seems like a good trade for the home team.
Recker makes no sense but I'd be fine with Garcia for Ynoa. I think I like this trade better than Garcia for Burdi. I think Burdi has a better chance to help the Twins than Ynoa does even with Burdi being hurt, although Ynoa could end up being a good starting pitcher, which in general has more value than a reliever.
Well, if he's a catcher, then he's also a reliever prospect.
Well, he certainly hits like a pitcher.
I agree that Recker doesn't make a lot of sense. He's one of those guys that you assume is a good defensive catcher because he can't hit. Maybe he's some veteran catching insurance in case of an injury or something. I agree that I'd rather give up Ynoa than Burdi, too. Ynoa looked really good in the GCL last year, but hasn't done much in six starts in Elizabethton. He's 19, so who knows, but I'm not upset about letting him go. Garcia won't be a star or anything, but he looks like an average pitcher, and I'd a lot rather have him in the rotation than Bartolo Colon.
Twins take on all of Garcia's remaining salary ($4.5m), but the Braves send over $100k for Recker's.
My wife just called to tell me she got a 30% raise. It was actually a little bit less than I had heard was the average raise of the teachers at her school, so I'm glad I didn't tell her so that she can just be really happy with the surprise instead of a little disappointed. This will more than help take the sting out of having to pay $250 a month more for health insurance since our boys no longer qualify for Medi-Cal. Now we're just waiting for our mortgage refinance/debt consolidation to close so that we can reduce our monthly payments as well.
This is the best way to get off Medi-Cal.
Actually, we made too much money combined over the previous 12 months, so part of the reason we were consolidating debt is to reduce payments to offset the increase in health insurance payments. Her raise was just a really nice unexpected bonus after the fact.
This article references both the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians, yet it fails to quote anyone from the Alliance of Magicians. For shame, Paper of Record.
Watched that episode last night, thanks to DPWY's article.
Also, saw this yesterday:
Safe-cracking for fun at home.