Cecil addressed this. The 5th dentist recommends not chewing gum at all.
And now for my rant - oh my fucking God, why is it so hard to report abandoned vehicles in Calgary? I called in another two vehicles which have sat outside my house for the last month without moving, and instead of being able to report them (the law here is that vehicles must be moved every 72 hours***), I talked to a dispatcher who apparently was in a very, very bad mood. He told me that the vehicles weren’t derelict, they weren’t abandoned, people can leave their vehicles on the street as long as they like as long as they live in the neighbourhood, and the car with the expired tags on the license plate is showing as a legally-registered car, so the tags mean nothing.
He gave me such attitude that I asked to talk to his supervisor, and he said that his supervisor was at lunch and he’d pass my phone number on to her. I said, “Yeah, sure you will,” thanked him for all his “help,” and hung up. I called back minutes later to get his name for my complaint about his lack of help and lack of professionalism. I sent an email to my city councillor (again) and to the supervisor of the Parking Authority’s customer service department (again). I hope they recorded the conversation so they can listen to him give me attitude and lie to me - when I got off the phone with him, I was shaking mad.
From this site.
Happy holidays, my refrigerator decided to die. Due to my own procrastination and relatively high (40’s) temperatures outside, I ended up losing almost everything in my freezer. That was annoying but I’ll take the blame.
Thursday, Dec 26th is the first day I had to shop for a new fridge. Due to size constraints and other difficulties, it wasn’t until Friday that I actually made the purchase.
While I was shopping I talked to the sales people and they thought I could get delivery Monday, Dec 30th. When they actually scheduled it, it was Thursday, Jan 2nd. Being bumped from Monday to Thursday I can only guess they don’t deliver the day before New Years.
By this time I’ve been without a working fridge for at least a week. I’ve been keeping things in my non-heated attached garage as a stopgap but pretty soon things I just want to keep cool are going to start freezing.
I got an automated call telling me that my delivery window was between 5 and 7 p.m. Thursday. I just can’t catch a break. Being scheduled late in the day puts your appointment at risk if they run into significant problems earlier in the day.
Finally, the magic day arrives… and the blizzard is here. I make it through the work day, leave early to get home before 5. I wait till after 7. About fifteen minutes later I call the help line.
After waiting ‘for the next service representative to become available’ I explain my problem and the rep says he will put me on hold to call the delivery office. While I am on hold another call comes in, it is an automated message telling me my item won’t be delivered and someone would call back later to tell me my next delivery date. The rep comes back on the line and says the delivery guys decided at 4:30 that, due to snow, they would stop deliveries.
So it took them 3 hours after they decided to stop to let me know they wouldn’t be coming. On top of that, after the rep gave me the news about them stopping deliveries, he said (unofficially) that my delivery was going to be rescheduled for Monday.
Monday? Monday? They can’t deliver due to snow, fine, but why can’t I get it the next day? Am I being pushed to the back of the line? That is outrageous. Four more days without a fridge, four more days without a fridge.
I’m going to go outside and break off an icicle and make myself a drink.
We had a hurricane last year. It was only a category one but damn that sucker was scary. I spent a few hour wishing I was somewhere else.
It’s ten at night with a freaking blizzard and the NYC mayor still hasn’t made the decision if they’re going to shut down the schools tomorrow. Dumbass. Thank god our local NJ principal went for a school closing tomorrow by five this evening.
Always look on the bright side Kaboodle: if it was 99F you couldnt even do that.
My heart goes out to you in the blizzard tho. Been lucky here in Dogpatch so far touch wood
So, instead of leaving a couple of doors cracked around the house, that nobody gives a shit about, your solution is to amputate your cat’s toes. Nice.
Keep her nails trimmed, put horizontal scratchers at the spots she scratches. Whether she simply finds those spots attractive for some reason or she’s really venting frustration at the doors being shut, she may go for the scratchers, if they’re there, instead of the carpet. Rub catnip on them. Plug in a Feliway diffuser nearby. Try these things near one closet if they’re all very separated and see if it makes a difference. If it does, then you know what you need to do for the other two. Trimmed cat nails don’t do much except slide over surfaces, and you only have to do it about every two weeks.
Or, just crack the stupid doors for her. Once she’s explored them she’ll likely lose interest or choose one as a regular hidey-hole and leave the others alone. Who cares?
The news story about a bad flu season and everyone lining up for flu shots is irritating me - flu shots have been available for free since October* (my husband and I got ours in November). Did all the people who are now lined up just think we would have no influenza this year? I don’t get it - you get a vaccination before the flu season starts, not once the news starts reporting people are dying.
*Just saw another news story that confirmed when the vaccination was available.
All good advice - if it’s the carpet that she just can’t leave alone, could you get some area rugs and put them where she likes to scratch so she doesn’t damage the apartment carpet?
Blender.
Were you aiming for the “Post One Word” thread? 
Colander!
I thought we’d agreed you can’t have a single colander?
Colander! Colander! Colander!
I thought of the Great Colander Saga when I picked up one from a kerbside rubbish throw-out a couple of weeks ago. Brand new, still with the tag on!
I’ve got two now. (insert smug smilie here).
Gee, the poor guy just got elected. Doesn’t he get a little grace period before being declared a dumbass?
Sorry, it’s New York, I forgot.
Only about 4 inches of snow here, but it was zero when I got up this morning. You’d thing we were in frigging Nome, or Winnipeg or something.
Good ones!
I’ve never seen that before – good one!
Lots of people stop her to ask about the bat! Part of what gets Mom so riled up about the dog situation is the number of people – including the neighbor in this recent encounter – who insist that “the doggy just wanted to play”. Mom grew up around dogs (and cats – her childhood home was located at a crossroads way out in the country, and people would frequently dump animals there); plus, she’s involved with a dog rescue. She’s very familiar with the difference between an overexcited dog who really does want to play and one that’s likely to attack.
High today in the low 20’s with a 60% chance of freezing rain overnight tonight.
Then the bottom falls out and there’s a zero percent chance of road salt clearing that shit up.
Saturday night -24
Sunday night -27
Monday night -24
I’m expecting at least a third of the state (Minnesota) to call in sick on Monday or work from home.
Going to be the same here. Fortunately, I don’t have to use sick leave as I’ve got enough annual leave built up if I decide to call in. My supervisor already told me he might call in.
See Jackmanii, zero ain’t nothin’.
I’m in office today, but I tell ya - I will NOT be going outside unless absolutely necessary Sunday or Monday. I will be working from home Monday.
Hodor! Hodor! Hodor!