# Febrantary (February Minirants) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 1, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286 "2014-02-01T17:24:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/161 "2014-02-08T13:08:06Z")
Heh. For a minute I thought you were confusing AZ with OH, **curly** , but then I xast my mind back to 1980, and realized you were name-checking the hometown of my best bud in boot camp. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/162 "2014-02-08T14:54:01Z")
> [@llcoolbj77](#): > > Stupid fucking ultrasound results. The tech couldn’t find the nasal bone at 19 weeks. It’s a soft marker for Down Syndrome. > > I did the cell free genetic testing, with perfectly healthy results. It’s supposed to be 99%accurate in detecting trisomy 21 (DS). > > \ A word of advice: please, please, please try not to do too much research online about it. I think the doc is required to give you worst-case scenario, but unfortunately that also serves to freak you the fuck out. When I was 25 weeks with my daughter, they found cysts on her brain, which they said could (but probably didn’t) indicate trisomy 18, which would mean she would probably die before her first birthday. Turns out, most people have cysts on the brain. She was born very healthy and is (knock on wood) still very healthy. However, I spent that week researching online frantically and scaring the dickens out of myself. Ultrasound seems to be in part an art, not a science. I would try to hang onto the genetic testing results; do you have another appointment scheduled to take another look? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/163 "2014-02-08T16:53:24Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > \ > \*\* “I can 'splain! Honest! See, the bastard is a shitty little prick, and – wait, that sounds bad, doesn’t it?” He’s a vet - he knows they’re all shitty little pricks. 😃 > [@Chimera](#): > > Came home, went straight for the Flexeril. > > Would really like to not hurt. I hesitate to ask because you’ve probably heard it a thousand times, but are you on any glucosamine and chondroitin? I have some hip joint problems, and it helps me quite a bit. > [@flatlined](#): > > Moving sucks. It doesn’t matter why you are doing it or how much you want to do it, the actual process just really sucks. > > I hadn’t realized that you had been in the same home for over 40 years. \ Oh, sorry, I meant that _I_ have been accumulating stuff for over 40 years - I’ve moved a lot more frequently than that. If I didn’t move every five years or so, I’d probably have about 15 times more stuff! And I’m not even all that hoardery! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/164 "2014-02-08T16:57:40Z")
My rant for today and many days - why can’t you control the temperature in a hotel room? We turned the heat off last night, and it was 25 degrees in there (77ÂșF)\*. It was -17ÂșC outside (1ÂșF), so we opened the window so we could sleep! I think in all of our travels and tons of hotel rooms, there has been about one that wasn’t frigging hot all night, summer or winter. Crazy! \*We keep our house at about 17ÂșC at home at night (63ÂșF). ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/165 "2014-02-08T20:08:18Z")
Fuck all media that air results of Olympic competition before they air on television here. I’m looking at you, New York Times. Do I have to cancel my subscription for the next two weeks? ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/166 "2014-02-08T20:26:58Z")
Mini-rant: I just got off the phone with parent number 3. Apparently my 7-year old son created and distributed his own invitations to a sleepover at our house. For tonight. Without letting me know Dammit, a little warning would’ve been nice. I’m just glad the other parents thought it was funny. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Dunkelheit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dunkelheit/32/248_2.png) [@Dunkelheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunkelheit)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/167 "2014-02-08T22:04:22Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > Goddamned anxiety. I hate it when I text friends, and don’t get a reply - it sends me straight into “they’ve realised I’m a terrible person and hate me” mode, rather than “they’re a busy parent, it’s not urgent, and they’ll get back to me at their convenience” rational thinking. Oooh, I know that feeling too well. > [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > Sounds like you’ve experienced that the hard way! Not directly, though it could have been a problem once. When the firefighters took the cover off the electric box on my mom’s house to turn the power off, so they wouldn’t get electrocuted while hosing the place down, they found a bunch of wires fused together in such a way that they said it would likely have set off an electrical fire in the system at some point. So it’s just as well that the fire started a different and more localized way, and while everyone was awake, heh. Less damage overall and nobody hurt. I don’t remember exactly what they said was wrong with the electric box, but it was scary at the time to think that it could have gone off at any time, inside the walls, and maybe when we were all asleep. Parkhead knows a fair bit about mucking about with electrics, but I wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot insulated pole. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/168 "2014-02-08T22:28:45Z")
> [@overlyverbose](#): > > Mini-rant: I just got off the phone with parent number 3. Apparently my 7-year old son created and distributed his own invitations to a sleepover at our house. For tonight. Without letting me know Dammit, a little warning would’ve been nice. I’m just glad the other parents thought it was funny. :smack: I laughed, because I did pretty much the same thing to my mom at that age. We had just moved into our new house a week or so before my birthday, and I decided a good way to get to know all the kids on my street was to invite them over for a birthday party. Which I forgot to tell Mom about until about two days beforehand. 😃 While I’m here, I’d like to pit the snow removal crew at my apartment complex. Yes, I know this is our second-snowiest winter on record and they’re running out of places to stack the snow, but piling it up so high you can’t see to get out of the end of the street is not the answer. And pushing the snow up onto the sidewalks isn’t a good idea either. You’re likely to get sued, either when one of my old-lady neighbors falls down or when my disabled neighbor decides to point out that she can’t get in or out of her parking spot. I complained to the office, but all I got back is “Well, they’re an independent contractor
” ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2014, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/169 "2014-02-08T23:19:05Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > Hey **flatlined**! I just learned something new about your former state! Did you know that you can’t sit at a truck stop and drink booze? They have a license to sell booze and food and all that and I can sit at their tables and eat, but not drink. So says Buckeye’s finest. > > Sigh. How am I supposed to drink away my sorrows? 😃 I had no idea, maybe this is why we didn’t stop at truck stops on road trips. Us bikers do lurve our beer, after all. > [@overlyverbose](#): > > A word of advice: please, please, please try not to do too much research online about it. I totally agree. I’ve managed to scare the crap out of myself and I was just researching routine heart surgery. (Yes, by-pass surgery is very scary for the patient and those who love him/her, but its routine for the operating team.) You don’t really find success stories, just the horror ones. > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Oh, sorry, I meant that _I_ have been accumulating stuff for over 40 years - I’ve moved a lot more frequently than that. If I didn’t move every five years or so, I’d probably have about 15 times more stuff! And I’m not even all that hoardery! :eek: Boy did I misunderstand what you wrote. I was all 😕😕😕 at the idea that you had lived in the same place for 40 years because that would mean that you were at least 60, and I thought you were closer to my age. Doesn’t matter, moving just sucks. Moving in the dead of winter in a frozen wasteland must suck almost as bad as moving to AZ in the middle of the summer. Lucky went to the vet today, blood work is all good. When I asked the vet to tell me how old she thought he was, she said she thought he was at least 14. Fucking cats just keep getting old and dying. Goddamned dogs do the same thing. My asshole husband is going to do the same thing. FML ---
**Author:** ![llcoolbj77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/eb9ed0/32.png) [@llcoolbj77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/llcoolbj77)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/170 "2014-02-09T00:27:27Z")
> [@overlyverbose](#): > > A word of advice: please, please, please try not to do too much research online about it. I think the doc is required to give you worst-case scenario, but unfortunately that also serves to freak you the fuck out. When I was 25 weeks with my daughter, they found cysts on her brain, which they said could (but probably didn’t) indicate trisomy 18, which would mean she would probably die before her first birthday. Turns out, most people have cysts on the brain. She was born very healthy and is (knock on wood) still very healthy. However, I spent that week researching online frantically and scaring the dickens out of myself. > > Ultrasound seems to be in part an art, not a science. I would try to hang onto the genetic testing results; do you have another appointment scheduled to take another look? Thanks Overly! I’m trying not to freak. I do have a follow-up U/S in about ten days. I made the mistake of drinking real coffee the morning of the U/S, so my pending child was all over the place. I’m definitely staying off the intrawebz though. That’s a recipe for disaster!!! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/171 "2014-02-09T03:47:52Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > \ > Boy did I misunderstand what you wrote. I was all 😕😕😕 at the idea that you had lived in the same place for 40 years because that would mean that you were at least 60, and I thought you were closer to my age. > > Doesn’t matter, moving just sucks. Moving in the dead of winter in a frozen wasteland must suck almost as bad as moving to AZ in the middle of the summer. Yup. I don’t think we’ll actually be making the move until spring or summer, but it’s all going to suck, no doubt about that. > [@](#): > > Lucky went to the vet today, blood work is all good. When I asked the vet to tell me how old she thought he was, she said she thought he was at least 14. Fucking cats just keep getting old and dying. Goddamned dogs do the same thing. My asshole husband is going to do the same thing. FML My cat is 14, too - she got all skinny and bony last year, from being, er, well-upholstered for the last 10 years. She’s on free-feed at this point, which has put a little weight back on. We were used to her eating her food, then gulping down the other cat’s food - it took a little while for us to realize that she can free-feed now that she doesn’t feel her food is threatened. Hang in there, Lucky! Oh, another mini-rant - the smoking bylaw here is no smoking within five meters of a doorway. Right outside the doorway because it’s so freaking cold isn’t five meters, assholes. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/172 "2014-02-09T04:24:04Z")
Dear Scott Hamilton, I love you. I adore you. I admire your courage, your humor, your bravery and your humbleness. You are a true champion both on and off the ice. BUT IF YOU DON’T SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LET THE SKATERS SKATE I’M GOING TO START A PETITION FOR TONYA HARDING TO HAVE ANOTHER GO WITH THE BATONS. Love, One of your biggest fans! ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/173 "2014-02-09T04:50:35Z")
I’m not sure whether I’m ranting at Discovery or Comcast this time, but either way, TONIGHT’S MYTHBUSTERS WAS _NOT_ A NEW EPISODE!!! Someone lied when the program listing claimed it was. ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/174 "2014-02-09T04:54:37Z")
An online friend of mine, who lost his wife 68 weeks ago, found his 33 year old daughter dead this afternoon. Fuck. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/175 "2014-02-09T05:16:15Z")
> [@Indyellen](#): > > An online friend of mine, who lost his wife 68 weeks ago, found his 33 year old daughter dead this afternoon. Fuck. Yeah, fuck. ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/176 "2014-02-09T05:43:18Z")
And now, I have the fun of learning that one of my sisters-in-law is in the hospital with bronchitis. Apparently she wasn’t lucid due to lack of oxygen. I found out on Facebook. I wish I’d answered the phone when she called earlier today. Part 2 of rant: when my husband went to the hospital with chest pains, I called all his siblings. I seems we don’t rate the same courtesy. I don’t know if my husband has seen Facebook; he went out to run a couple errands. So I don’t want to post until he knows. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/177 "2014-02-09T14:02:01Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > 
 > > Oh, another mini-rant - the smoking bylaw here is no smoking within five meters of a doorway. Right outside the doorway because it’s so freaking cold isn’t five meters, assholes. You see that a lot here too. People smoking where they shouldn’t, and sometimes right next to a no-smoking sign! They’ve got some nerve. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/178 "2014-02-09T14:23:11Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > You see that a lot here too. People smoking where they shouldn’t, and sometimes right next to a no-smoking sign! They’ve got some nerve. Our building is a Secure Facility with multiple guards at the front desk. They make sure people aren’t right next to the door. I think its hilarious to see these people out there for their cigarette fix when it is 10 or 20 below. _Suffer you bastards! Suffer for your habit!_😛 ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/179 "2014-02-09T15:11:39Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > You see that a lot here too. Here? You do know this is just a web site
 Even if it feels like home. You can smoke anywhere you like here. And anything (which explains a few of _Drunky Tokey Smurf’s_ replies). ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286/180 "2014-02-09T19:13:32Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > You see that a lot here too. People smoking where they shouldn’t, and sometimes right next to a no-smoking sign! They’ve got some nerve. At my local Safeway, they have a couple of tables out front, and “No Smoking” signs on the wall behind them - there are always people smoking in front of them - sometimes even staff of the store. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/febrantary-february-minirants/680286.md?page=10)