46 thoughts on “February 3, 2023: \m/”

    1. It feels like one of those artificially generated pictures. Looking closely, the cup appears to be positioned not only on the guitar but on one of the strings.

      I guess it is possible that the angle of the picture makes it look like that, but if that's the case, I'm back with you, who would actually do this?

  2. Last night I had the biggest swing in emotions I've ever had curling, going from considering stepping down as skip half way through to dropping five points in the final end to win by one. The curling gods are fickle!

    1. Ha!

      We gave up 4 to a team allowing them to tie us up. We were clearly better than them.

      We ended the match with a 5 and a 6 for the 17-6 victory.

      1. Heh, 11 is as many points as I scored in 8 ends. For fun, this is the draw that snapped me out of my foul mood:

        1. Nice!

          If I'm the other team's skip, I think I throw at your three stacked up on the right. I'd have a chance to knock one out and sit in a tough spot for you to get him out.

          I know there was a blocker to contend with but once you miss on the left side, you're dead.

          1. I think he decided to go for the easy take out to force me to make a shot to get to the extra end largely because they had started to struggle with their take outs after the 4th end. And then I think he whiffed it so hard because of nerves probably brought on because we forced him to have to make that decision with that perfect draw to the other side I made. It was a fun end!

            Also, the other skip stole 8 from me a few years ago, so this was revenge.

  3. Yesterday, I was in the office in MPLS and I forgot to take my phone out of my car. At lunch, I went to my car and got it. As soon as I got it, my wife called. I was walking through the skyway with a colleague, so I didn't answer it, thinking I could get back to her when I got back to the office.

    Immediately thereafter, I got a call from an 800 number. I thought, well, I should get that.

    It was a dude telling me purporting to be from Excel Energy saying that we were going to get our power turned off in 29 minutes if we didn't settle up our past due accounts. Huh. I was a little suspicious.

    1. We pay through autopay and I don't have any reason to believe that we have insufficient funds to cover the bill.
    2. WE ARE NOT CUSTOMERS OF EXCEL ENERGY.

    I told him that we are not customers of Excel Energy and he said that it's all one company. I informed him that I would be dealing with my power company directly. He hung up.

    Just to be sure, I checked to make sure there wasn't a glitch and it turns out that I am fully current with my utility bills, as I suspected.

    1. Effing scammers.

      Always be suspicious of cold calls like that with something urgent.
      Good job keeping your head about you!

      1. True, it's call the cold weather rule. However... utilities have parsed the language and skirt the law with intermittent cutoffs -- 30 minutes off and 30 minutes on. So technically they're metering service, not disconnecting it.

        1. I've dealt with the cold weather rule a fair amount in my career, both on the consumer side and now on the utility provider side (small cities). I could tell all sorts of stories. I've heard of the intermittent cutoffs, but haven't ever seen it. I generally advise my clients to comply with the intention of the law, as well as the letter. We can wait until April.

    4. I got the exact same call about a month ago while I was driving to the store. We are also not customers of Excel Energy. The big tell was that he didn't seem to know my name, kept asking if I was the account holder but he couldn't give me the account holder's name or address. Nothing fishy about that, eh?

  4. I think I've mentioned it here before, but Philosofette and I made a strong push for our school to add a speech team this year. Tomorrow will be our first tournament. We have 5 students attending, with at least 1 more (and maybe a few others) who will be going to future tournaments. All of our students are, obviously, first time participants. 3 of them are 7th graders, not even high school novices. This tournament only has varsity competition. I've tried to prepare our students to be blown away by the competition, and to just hope to have fun and learn something. I'm absurdly anxious, even without any expectations whatsoever. Hopefully it's just fun for everyone, and we can use this year to build a program for the future.

    1. Bravo. Both of my daughters did debate and one did speech in high school. It teaches things that are missing from the regular curriculum these days.

      1. My dream is to get a debate team locally. I was definitely more of a debater than a speech person in high school (even went to state (where I got last)). Philosofette was a speechie all the way through (and placed at state twice!), but last night she was reading about speech and debate judging and she declared that debate must have been way better than speech, just based on how cool the judging was.

        Maybe when Aquinas hits 9th grade and we've got speech going well, I can push for debate too.

        1. I went to national qualifiers in speech and finished last!

          Judging debate is definitely way more fun. Feels less subjective.

          1. And we both had to deal with a certain teammate who constantly bested us in both speech and debate.

    2. The oldest won his first mock trial meet ever this week. He’s a parenting roller coaster, but this was a nice moment. Got to watch virtual, I was pretty impressed.
      We’re not sure if he likes the “lawyering” or the Matlock performance moments, but he really seems to go for it.

    1. Vargas played for Mexico last year, plus Venezuelan and Mexican Pacific winter leagues. He mashed for the Laredos last year. He had a 1.028 OPS with the next best player posting a .896 OPS. I wonder if Sanó is holding out for a major league deal.

  9. Pernil report: ZOMG! Served with pickled onions and peperoncini, black beans and brown rice.

    The pork turned out great. I roasted, covered, for two hours (first hour at 400, second at 325), then uncovered for two (325 then 400....I couldn't decide whether I wanted to slow-roast or not, but the last hour crisped things up without drying it out), adding a cup of water after the first hour and a half cup for the last 30 minutes.

    There was a good cup or cup and a half of rendered fat in the roaster on to of a layer of salty, garlicky, delicious fond. I poured off the fat and scraped up about a third cup of gooey, liquidly fond, which I added to the beans. Then I deglazed the roaster with 4 cups of water, boiling and scraping. I used that to make the rice. Waste not, want not. The fond was salty, but perfect as additions to the beans and rice.

    No pics, but happy belly.

    2. This WGOM reporter posted in the old basement on the merits of Pernil about 20 years ago (Lechonera de Bruny, Cayey, Puerto Rico). Root veggies, Medalla beer, and fabulous pork.

      2. The only Cayey stop for us last year was for fuel. However, we did get to some nice local spots in Juana Díaz (near where we stayed) and Ponce. Kids are fairly picky, no pernil, but they did like maduros and were okay with mofongo. Mostly, they just ate chicken with sides of fries and fruit. I was amused at their disbelief when they found some small pin feathers in the crispy chicken skin.

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