I wish Goo and Abbey would accept their new stepson.
Could have put this in the mini rants thread, but since y’all know my stuff better, it’s more fun to rant here …
Strap in, kiddos ….
Last task of the night for Shoe tonight was to put pizzas into the rack at the bottom of the reach-in.
WRONG! Last task was to stand up and hit her head on the stainless steel handle that she has successfully avoided for a coupla years so hard, half the kitchen stopped in their tracks.
“Are you .. um, you okay?”
“Ow.”
But wait! More fun!
I went to fill up my car’s tank, and the little flap for the gas tank was frozen shut. Sealed by ice. Did not know that was a thing, so after some unsuccessful prying, instead of going home after work, I had to go get a car wash, (warm! soapy! slightly anxiety inducing!) then go back around to get gas before my lil hatchback gave up on “running on fumes”.
I’m now home and being assaulted by a small panther with serious cabin fever. And also negotiating a trip to Texas to visit my lovely parents.
Please envy my life.
I do, all except that last part. I especially envy the black house panther.
And good evening all. The afternoon went as planned, got about 90% of the Mega Crossword done and 1,200 calories walked/cycled off, and about 75% of them put back on thanks to grilled ham-n-cheese night. And since I did eat my meat, I had some pudding for dessert. Have the tackleball game on in the background and the sloth position has been assumed for the balance of the night.
And a bunch of postings since this morning, need to play catch-up.
Flyboy, just browsed the flights and was surprised the cost is relatively low, depending on the airline, for a 3-hour flight. Hope it goes as planned.
JtC, happy cookie-making and hope the Diablo release makes it out tonight so he has new virtual territories to conquer. And adopting a Ladybug is…unusual, but somehow touching.
Truth. Brown delivered my Gift Card Xmas presents today, so that is complete.
FCM, soounds like you’ll have to dip into the menu book for ham dishes. And a scritch for Ziva making an appearance.
Well, we didn’t light it.
Nut, I do hope the guy gets his act together and gets is PhD, but doesn’t sound promising.
Cookie, haircuts are always nice and hope dinner was delicious.
red, good news on the lab report, and as long as the food is edible I count that as a win…
swampy, I googled Montezuma, GA Mennonite restaurant and darned if I don’t think I found it: https://yoders-deitsch-haus.site/ The pictures look quite promising. One of these days you and OYKW will have to make a pilgrimage to Pennsylvania and eat at America’s Largest Buffet (Amish): https://www.shady-maple.com/best-and-biggest-buffet-in-america/
shoe! Was scrolling down the line and wondering where you were, and here you are! Glad no concussion resulted, and maybe this was just the car trying to get warm somehow by making you take it to the car wash…
And that’s probably it for the night, y’all take care and I’ll catch you tomorrow once the Firday shopping is done.
I don’t know how much this is costing her. There’s the flights, the hotel rooms, and I think Joyce Meyer Ministries had a fee involved. Volunteering ain’t cheap. I hope it goes well too. She’s going to be working two days in a mens’ prison.
Do you have one of those little bottles of hand sanitizer in your purse? If so, run a bead around the edges and the alcohol will melt the ice. I learned that trick when I lived in AZ.
Isn’t feline love great? Especially when they decide they trust you enough to sleep with their butt on your face. 
I was a big fan of Ladybird, she’s the one who made the roads look nice. But inspired by you, LadyBeth is the name. Hubs rolled his eyes, but he has had much practice over the years.
She must be doing a wonderful job, there are two more flower buds starting.
I’m so happy I misremembered, its too cold for your heat to go out. Hurray for a good dinner, I wonder if it was catered considering the small kitchen and full dining room.
Thank you, I took the not-perfect cookies to the old farts home and sucked up the compliments like I deserved them!
Not perfect cookies are just misshapen or badly decorated, they are still good to eat. I wouldn’t serve burned cookies to people.
I can’t put her out now, she would just freeze to death. Ladybugs gather up together in the fallen leaves to share warmth and hibernate and she won’t know where they are.
It was always burning since the world was turning 
Ain’t that the truth!
There was that one time when the rescue vet’s office staff asked for my opinion about the waiting room remodel. They figured that I had been paying so much for it that I deserved some input on the room I spent hours in every week.
When I was in the Civil Air Patrol, the joke was that CAP stood for ‘Come And Pay’.
I played with Findus a bit. Now I’m bleeding.
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave. It’s currently 31 degrees Ferret Height(-0.556 Centipedes).
So you learned your lesson?
Sounds like you’re about to join me in the “just had to suplex the cat” group.
Oy.
I think he just assumed it would all be fine- I mean, the supervisor should have read the thesis, it’s part of their job to stop stuff like that from happening.
To put it in context, this is not like a normal exam. It’s supposed to be the confirmation that yep, it was you that did the work, and you understand it. If you got to that point, you should pass. There’s normally a party organised, starting from when the student walks out the room, with snacks and gifts and congratulations cards. In some of the labs they’ll be presented with an item already engraved with the lab group, their name and the viva date.
It’s not compulsory to have a public talk before the private viva; the student can choose to have one that’s a select group only. This guy had it announced over the internal system, and invited the entire department via the email system, plus his wife had flown over to attend. Dude was 100% expecting to come out of this into a party and get all his IDs changed to say Dr.
It’s not completely unknown for a student to not pass- though he’s the first I think in the 3 years I’ve been there- but for it to happen when the student (and his supervisor, who was there with a big smile) was so clearly expecting to pass, without the supervisor having even raised concerns, that’s really bad. And he’s not been hanging around the lab; no-one had seen him in months and he apparently had moved to Portugal some time ago. This could be OK if his project was mostly computer based, and no-one was reallt sure, so we assumed he’d been doing lots of bioinfomatics stuff. Turns out nope, he’s been doin’ nothin’.
The only stuff he had to present was one trial with no detail whatsoever, done almost 3 years ago, or was just someone else’s work, with a thin layer of woolly interpretation draped over. Almost no actual analysis.
Also worrying me is that there is (I think) another student who was with the same supervisor, the sole other member of their ‘lab’. The ‘I think’ is because no-one’s seen him for months either, so there’s a possibility that he’s left. He wasn’t there at the viva talk, which was one of the reasons I went, cos I thought he might show.
Guy #2 is a really nice person best I can tell, though it’s only rare occasions I’ve spoken to him, but extremely socially awkward. I think his brain goes about 3 times the speed his mouth can catch up with, so he’s very difficult to understand sometimes, but he’s really smart.
If he’s stuck isolated with the same supervisor, there’s no way he’s going to be getting proper advice support either, and that sucks, because he could be doing something really good.
Oh, and it turns out another student I was kinda friends with who I haven’t seen in a bit is also MIA. He liked someone’s instagram post last week, but that’s been it for months. He’s not coming in or even replying to emails.. He’s also supposed to be at home doing bioinformatics and writing…
Morning, mumpers! It’s currently 9c/49f with a predicted high of 10c/50f and with rain showers. Weather app says “It’s a dark, wet and fucking dreadful day. I fucking love it!” It is dark, it’s raining and I have a 2hr dept meeting this morning. That’s sufficiently dreadful for me.
I am glad to hear you are safe from the flooding, and I saw on FB that flyboy is also not getting his toes wet. I hope it dries up soon!
That sounds like fun! I take mine to the local hand carwash place, Mr Araz and his team do the exterior washing and drying for me for the princely sum of £10 ($13) so I am supporting the economy of whichever country he came from. They do a good job and they’re pretty quick, I’m happy with the results.
I hope you enjoy some alone time with the feline family, and I hope Mrs LA has a productive trip.
Well done, Ziva! Perhaps the smell of ham and the lure of treats was too much for her to resist.
Woo and hoo! And bonus woohoos for getting to the bathroom by yourself!
Sounds like an eventful night, and I definitely envy this part of our life. Much as I love our mogs, none of them are lap cats and some days it reminds me how much I miss Shadow.
Yesterday went pretty much as expected, I logged off work at home and made today’s campus food, dealt with cats and had some dinner before going to fetch ‘im indoors from the station. Only two more station runs and we’re done! I was in bed early, which was good as I was nodding off on the sofa.
I was awake early, got up and made myself presentable for work, fed the cats and cleaned litter trays, then trekked to campus courtesy of three bits of public transport which were all running late but managed to still line themselves up nicely. I have a 2hr dept meeting this morning, and a meeting with someone else this afternoon so it’s another day when very little will be done. We had an internal job vacancy posting yesterday for a part-time (21hrs) role in a different part of my College, same grade as I’m on, line managing one person, and my salary sits right in the middle of the salary range. I’m very tempted to apply for it.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 35 Amurrkin out and clear with a predicted high of 66 and sunny. I shall take care of candle duty today. I am also in the mood for some down home vittles, so sup will be country fried steak with onion gravy, peas and butter beans with okra, smashed N.O.T., rutabagas and cornbread. A fair amount of work is involved, but the results will be worth it. Never fear, I shall make time for RDOS sloth as well.
shoe Yikes! Hope your haid feels OK today. I have never had a gas tank cover freeze up. The things we learn!
JtC LadyBeth is an excellent ladybug name!
Nuts sounds like a definite lack of preparation on the guy’s part. Let’s hope he buckles down now and does the work.
BooFae are you thinkin’ of goin’ part time or are you thinkin’ of takin’ on the part time gig for extra money?
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then I shall make myself presentable and go take care of duty.
Happy Firday Y’all!
Pellet stove burned out last night, so the furnace ran several times. I need to go check how much oil we’ve got - I’m pretty sure it’s well over half a tank. Meanwhile, I dumped a sack o’ pellets in the hopper and it’s burning away.
Before I dragged out of bed, I was reading various bits of FB on my tablet. There was a post/story of Loretta Swit and her last meeting with Larry Linville before he died. But it was marginally creepy - as if recorded by someone who was in her bedroom in the middle of the night when she got a phone call from Larry, then who followed her on the plane and into his hospital room, recording their conversations. I don’t know the source or the account where it was posted and I’m pretty sure it’s just vivid imaginings, but it was still creepy.
And plans for today - gather household garbage and recycling to be hauled to the convenience center, laundry (of course) then first coat of Cetol on the nav light boards. So, excitement abounds - do try not to envy me. It’s gray and dreary and I don’t think it’ll get out of the 30s today. I am so over winter, and we haven’t reached the solstice yet! Dammit.
I also need to go thru our assorted household stuff for a white elephant for our family game/exchange on Christmas. I have one thing picked out and ready to go, but I need one more. One of my sisters is running the game this year. I’ve done it the last 5 or so and I’m just tired of doing it. It’s not difficult - just tedious.
One of Roxy’s gifts was delivered last night and one for Tobias is coming tomorrow. Those, along with some books, will be wrapped and ready to go. Daughter will do a Christmas Eve thing again at her house since we’ll all be at my brother’s for Christmas. I’ll have the kids here on the 23rd and I got a pack of ornaments to decorate so they can make gifts for their parents, their grandma, and dunno who else. I figure they’re old enough to learn to give as well as get.
And I may or may not take something edible to the family gathering. I used to do deviled eggs, but I’m not going to mess with that this year. There will be tons of sweets and almost no veggies. Maybe I’ll try that. Or not. I dunno.
Anyway, it’s probably time to shower and start my chores.
Happy Firday!!
Reducing my hours, reclaiming some sanity, and going part-time. I can’t do both jobs as they would technically need to happen at the same time 
, unless I could clone myself.
This morning’s dept meeting was an absolute sh*tshow. The agenda had 12 items on it, they spent 3/4 of their time on item 3 and had to skip directly to item 12 in the last 10 minutes. The Chair really needs lessons in how to run a meeting, and rein in the rest of them because they spent all that time talking about things that weren’t on the agenda, and had already been told there would be separate meetings in January to discuss this very same item.
Friday onwards!
jtc, you had me curious about the life span of ladybugs. when i was a lifeguard i would rescue them from the water. june bugs however… they did not get rescued.
turns out according to this site How Long Do Ladybugs Live? - The Life Cycle of The Ladybird you could have ladybeth for a year or 2.
i’m sure lemon tree enjoys having a little friend.
No, I didn’t.
Good morning.
It’s 48°F, dark, and mostly cloudy outside. I can see the moon through a gap in the clouds, though. It’s going to be unseasonably warm, with temperatures topping out around 57°F, and the day will be generally cloudy. The rain has stopped for now, but the flooding, mudslides, and evacuations continue. Hopefully, with this brief reprieve, the rivers can work to get back within their banks.
BooFae, I do not miss shitshow meetings. Most were managed quite well, but some were awful.
JtC, I love the ladybug name! I buy ladybugs every year, but most eventually move on.
Shoe, I’m glad you popped in.
Red, I’m so glad it wasn’t what was suspected, and I sure hope your progress continues.
I read an article yesterday in a publication that covers government employment and other topics, which stated that OPM felt the deferred program they offered at the beginning of the year was entirely voluntary, but most people interviewed for that story disagreed with that assessment. The folks interviewed were people who took the DRP. I can honestly say I felt, and still feel, the same. Honestly, I still regret taking this. I should be happy about my retirement, but I’m not, and I can’t let it go. On the other hand, I know I’d be highly frustrated right now if I was still working there.
My son’s oral surgery went well, but ran long because they found out the root for the area they were working on was fractured, and that was the root (hah, see what I did there), causing his pain. He had two root canals on that same tooth before this. So, now, the root and the rest of the tooth have been removed, and they put bone grafting material in there in preparation for the eventual tooth implant.
The drive down there wasn’t bad, though the first part was pretty sloppy. After his dental appointment, I got him settled. I drove back up north, grabbed lunch for my husband and me, ate, then went back out to get my hair done.
After the hair appointment, I swung by the local Michaels in hopes of finding some tabletop Christmas decor. The offerings were poor, and I think there were only about four other people in there shopping. The store seemed dingy and filled with disappointment. So, I came back home.
During the day, one of my former peers texted me asking what I did about the office closures. It seems one of the offices up in Mount Vernon had to close due to nearby flooding, and she was unsure what steps to follow. In general, we had to report any weather or disaster-related closures to National, so I told her how to do that.
I need to get some presents ordered and sent today, and other than the usual household tidying, that’ll be the extent of the day.
You all take care of yourselves, please.