54 thoughts on “October 19, 2017: Bummer”

  1. Well, on Monday our day care provider gave us notice that she’s shutting down on November 3rd to take “a job she couldn’t refuse.” She gave us a couple names of providers she knows who supposedly had openings, but none of them actually did when we called that night. The center we’d looked at (nice setup, small enrollment, age appropriate, very convenient for our commute) before the Poissonnier was born called to say they had an opening at the end of the summer, but we passed at the time. Naturally, they’re full now and don’t anticipate any openings. Same for other centers & in-home providers because it’s the beginning of autumn.

    Suffice it to say, our soon-to-be former provider is off our holiday card list.

    1. Oh man.

      Ours gave us notice she's done at the end of May and even that's leaving us with anxiety. But that's nothing compared to yours. Good luck.

    2. Been there. Multiple times, actually. I feel for you, man.

      Just keep looking. Sometimes you'll find a place that will be willing to do temporary care. Child care is a turbulent vocation - always lots of kids starting and quitting and transferring.

    1. My wife was watching Fuller House the other day and it reminded me that the world probably would have been better had Full House just not ever premiered at all.

        1. The image didn't work for me so I'm just going to assume it was something that agrees with me.

        1. Novak seems to be taking the Ebert approach in that he's asking what the show is trying to do and whether or not it's achieving its goal. I had been happy to just skip Fuller House and anything related to it before (though as a youth I had seen the show a fair amount), but I just read some review snippets and it strikes me that the negative reviews all fundamentally disagree with the show even existing in the first place. It's a bit like arguing a horror movie is bad because you don't like horror movies, or that Mozart's operas were terrible because they aren't sung in English. Maybe you don't like completely predictable, self-referential, saccharine-sweet, formulaic TV sitcoms, but that doesn't mean the show isn't giving its target audience exactly what it wants.

          I suppose I could have sympathy for the critics in that they have to show up to watch things that they wouldn't normally choose to watch, whereas I can just never watch Fuller House because it doesn't sound like an interesting premise to me.

          1. I agree. It's a bit like the Hallmark Channel movies that Mrs. A likes to watch. You can't criticize them for being predictable, because they're supposed to be predictable. She goes into it knowing that the right girl will fall in love with the right guy, that the town's factory will be saved, that the kids' problems will be resolved. That's what she wants to see--that's why she turned it on in the first place. Shows like that are doing what they're supposed to do.

              1. Given the current state of popular country music, playing them backwards could only be an improvement.

          2. Well said.

            And even though I linked to him, I completely did a double take where I initially I thought you were talking about me and not B.J.

          3. I love that approach.

            My wife is the target audience for Fuller House. She says sometimes it hits the mark, sometimes it doesn't. I've even laughed a couple of times while watching it in passing and I never laughed at the original even when I was 10.

          4. In acting/writing/film school, this exact concept is drilled into us. As such, I'm happy just ignoring even the things I hate. It kind of changes one's outlook when one does predictable crap like Crazy For You, Brigadoon and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and the audience loses their collective minds and can't wait to meet the cast afterward.

  2. I love Southwest Airlines as a business and service provider. But.

    I recently had to cancel a trip to the Fatherland (Because Surgery). Southwest allows one to bank the cost of the original flight for up to a year, which is great. The "but" is that they make it unreasonably difficult to track those funds. You have to know a confirmation number to look up the existence of banked travel funds. And there is no way within one's account to look up said confirmation number.

    Luckily, I preserved the notification with the number. But this is stupid. Why, when my account allows me to see upcoming flights (and their confirmation nbers) can't they do the same with banked funds? It's just a different data type in the database.

    I wrote Southwest an email complaint asking for additional functionality. Their response was basically a Selig shrug. Boo. Get r dun, people. This ain't hard.

    1. To be fair, it does make good business sense for them to not just give you that money back and make it really hard for you to use it later...

      1. In what world is that properly described as "fair"? We've moved to the point now that our concept of justice demands businesses try to rip us off?

        1. "To be fair" has a fairly long history around here of being used with tongue firmly, firmly planted in cheek. Believe me, the idea of non-refundable plane tickets generally makes me nauseous.

          1. I may have missed the ellipses at the end of your LTE. And also may have been reading too many political articles lately.

      2. Well, it's actually really easy to use it later, it's just difficult to track it in the meantime.

        I had to look, but yeah I don't see anywhere in the app or website to find that info. I think it's easy enough to apply it when purchasing a different flight, but that's not the question.

  3. Piling onto yesterday's gruesome discussion, Lin is out for the season with a ruptured patella tendon. Can someone wrap KAT, Wiggins, and Butler in bubble wrap please?

    1. The start to the season is making my "you should watch basketball because the NFL is an injurious bloodsport" talking point a little harder to use. (I'll persevere though. These basketball injuries are fluky and not an integral part of the game, afterall.)

      1. Playing professional sports eventually leads to injury in essentially every sport. The question for me is whether or not those injuries prevent you from reaching your 55th birthday.

        1. This and Mike's response are exactly how I'll power through this in my militant anti-footballism.

      2. Plus there's a big difference in long-term consequences from a blown out knee/leg/ankle when compared to frequent head injuries.

  4. Just got to the point in last night's game where the Granderson "foul tip" happened. Knowing the ejection was coming made the performance more enjoyable.

    The crew chief did the home plate ump no favors.

    1. It was a bad call, no question. But I've read in several places this morning that it was "the worst call you'll ever see", which is typical sportswriter (and sports fan) hyperbole. I've seen many calls that were far worse than that one.

      1. It didn't happen to the Yankees, so I fail to see how it could be the worst call you'll ever see.

        (and more seriously: forgetting something, hyperbolic sports media?

        )

        1. Dang it Cuzzy! You are positioned perfectly, text book even. How. Did. You. Miss. That. Call?

          That image gives me nightmares.

            1. Don't do what I did and go watch the video. Not only will it trigger bad memories, but it will also have you agreeing with Ron Darling.

    1. Just worth noting that, if he’s hired, Gardy would be the first former Twins manager to manage another team since Ray Miller succeeded Davey Joshnson in Baltimore in 1998.

      1. Of course, the only other former Twins manager since Ray Miller is Tom Kelly. As I recall there were teams interested in hiring TK, but he wasn't interested in managing again.

    2. That's good to hear. He may not be the greatest manager, and is a bit too old school, but he's a really good dude and it's good to have good people around.

    3. Well, Gardy will have a better starting pitching staff than he did in his last season with the Twins.

      I wonder how many ex Twins coaches will make the trip to Detroit?

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