3733 Back yard business

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Art is anything you can get away with. 

-- Marshall McLuhan --

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There's some kind of very small bird hunting insects just before sundown every evening.  There's dozens of them, and they form a roundish cloud above the tops of the trees, and they swoop and dive in an intricate pattern. 

Immediately after sundown, the bats come out.  They fly in more angular patterns, with their wings more forward, and tend to spread out.  They come from somewhere in the woods on the shore of the lake.  They gave me an idea for Hercules' birthday next week.  I bought him a bat house.

About every early afternoon I hear a lot of racket out back.  We have a hawk living by the lake, and the smaller birds don't like it.  When he comes around he gets dive bombed by crows, blackbirds, and sparrows.   Something thrilling about a tiny sparrow bombing a hawk, hitting him in the back with claws out.

In the late afternoon, there's a racket from the big gum tree.  There are two pairs of woodpeckers who want to claim it as their own territory.  They chase each other all around and through the tree, screaming the whole time.

The robins who collected my yarn?  The yarn and twig nest, a few feet from the side of my house:

Momma bird is there, on the nest, although you can barely see her.  Daddy bird just chased a cowbird away.  Daddy bird is a hero.
.

3732 Time waster

Thursday, May 16, 2013

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought,

but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

-- Albert Einstein --

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Google Easter Egg:

Google "Atari Breakout", then click on "images".

Let it load.

Say goodbye to your day.
.

3731 Welcome back, leg.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

If you explain so clearly that nobody can misunderstand, somebody will.

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Nugget got her cast off today (3.5 weeks).  We went to the doctor's office, quick xray, doctor said looking good, nurse went at it with a saw which Nugget didn't like at ALL, and then it was off.

Her right calf is visibly smaller than the left.  The calf muscles will be weak for a few weeks.  Doctor said not to encourage her to walk.  Let her go at her own pace.  And absolutely NO CLIMBING for three weeks.  (I don't know why. That's going to be rough.  She's part monkey.)  Come back in four weeks.

In the waiting room there was a big wooden train set on a low table that fascinated her, so after the cast was off we let her play with it for a long time.  She was standing holding on to the edge of the table, and she fell three times.  Either the leg doesn't want to hold her up, or she's bending the knee as if the cast is still on, but there's no bulk now under her foot, which unbalances her.  Or both.  So, yeah, it'll be a while.

I don't think she truly noticed that she had her real leg back for a while.  Back in the car, strapped in her car seat, she looked at her legs, studied them, then she lifted the right leg by the knee and foot, and kissed the calf.

"Welcome back, leg.  I missed you."
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3730 I don't understand.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

A jury consists of 12 persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

-- Robert Frost --

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I don't understand why folks of Spanish heritage are called Latino/a.  Weird.  Latin --> Rome --> Italy.  Aren't Italians the real Latinos?

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What?  NJ birds have taste?

I put out nest-building yarn.  An ugly orange 2-ply sport yarn, and some off-white worsted 4-ply that I had cut and split into 6 to 8-inch lengths of 2-ply.  Both were polyester or something - not wool or cotton, anyway.

All the off-white is gone.  The orange is still lying there.  Rejected.  Forlorn.

I don't understand.
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3729 Knitting a nest

Monday, May 13, 2013

Mythology, n.:  The body of a primitive people's beliefs concerning its origin, early history, heroes, deities and so forth, as distinguished from the true accounts which it invents later. 

-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" --

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I noticed a robin in my back yard picking up bits of straw and grass.  So I cut some 6" lengths of orange sport off-white yarn and tossed them on the patio.

I didn't see the bird come by, but within a half hour it was all gone.

Cool.
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3728 On printing guns, again

Monday, May 13, 2013

Impartial, adj.:  Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of two conflicting opinions.

-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary" --

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Two posts back I wrote my opinion on 3-D printed guns.  This article points out that although the plans for the gun that were briefly available online had been downloaded 100,000 times, apparently no one has actually done it. 

I love this part, the last sentence:

According to experts I spoke with, printing the various parts that comprise the weapon would take at least eight hours. In other words, it's extremely possible that people intending to make a 3D-printed gun haven't quite finished doing so, or haven't quite finished the YouTube video. It is also possible that the hand with which they type now contains a lower number of fingers than it did on Sunday.

3727 Nugget

Saturday, May 11, 2013

With capitalism man exploits man.  With communism it's the exact opposite.

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She's bringing me a mothers' day card she made for me all by herself.  When I walked in the door she ran excitedly to the dining room to get it.  It's snips of colored paper glued to the front.  Her mommy helped cut the paper, but Nugget did the color selections and placement design, and the gluing, all by herself.


She was very proud of it. I was very impressed and told her so. It's now displayed on my refrigerator.

Daughter said that at the nursery school the teachers are very grabby.  The kids make things, and then the teachers grab it and write all over it.  Nugget finds that very frustrating.  She made it very clear to Mommy that she wanted it left exactly as she made it.  ("No! Mine! Ahma! (Ahma is me))  So there's no writing inside, which is fine with me.  I don't need no freakin' writin' to get the idea.

They took me out for a Mothers' Day brunch Friday. 
As you can see, she's walking with the cast.  The cast itself is purple, but her mother is obsessed with keeping it clean, so it's covered with a white daddy-sock.



[http://youtu.be/Ajq5oLOZJV0]

The white bag the Nugget is carrying is my doggie-bag.  By the time it got to the car, the home fries, shrimp omelet, and strawberries & bananas were all mixed together.  Oh well, at least it made it to the car.

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In that first photo, note the forelock.  Then take a good look at my profile photo.  Same forelock (if you can manage to see it....).
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3726 Thoughts on exploding things

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Adopt the pace of Nature. Her secret is Patience
-- Waldo Emerson --

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Lots of fuss now about 3-D printed guns.

Ho hum.

The first problem is the printers. 

I know some people who own home versions of 3-D printers.  The small least expensive ones are more like toys, but cost a minimum of $1500.  They don't work as well as those YouTube videos would lead you to think. You have to feed them plastic "ink", and if you think the cartridges for your regular printer are expensive....yeouch!  The production machines you see on YouTube are horribly expensive.  You're not going to find one in your neighbor's basement.

In some, the base moves, in some the print head moves, in some both move.  This gives you a multitude of possible error points - the head clogs, the head burps, the belt moving the head or base slips slightly, and so on.  There are a lot of misprints using up a lot of that precious plastic before you get a useable item.

The device has to be fed code describing the part to be printed.  That's another big exposure.  How much do you trust the folks who produced it?  Those plans are also usually expensive, no matter how they are generated.

The second problem is the printed gun.

If the entire gun is 3-D printed, the slightest misprint/glitch could cause the gun to explode in your hand the first time you try to fire it.  So how do you test it?

Shooting a standard bullet generates heat.  Heat is not kind to plastic.  So even if it has been demonstrated that it's well printed from good code with no burps, I would be afraid to attempt a second bullet.

Of course, this is all blather from my own head, and there may be no problem at all.

I wonder if soon we'll be seeing a lot of one-handed amateur gunsmiths.

Schadenfreude.  Tee-hee!

--------------------------------

Have you heard about PC-Kus (sheesh - who named that)?  The reason your hair eventually turns gray is that you build up hydrogen peroxide, which bleaches the hair in the roots.  PC-Kus is a topical cream that converts (breaks up) hydrogen peroxide into hydrogen and water, allowing the previous color to return.

(The bad news is that the longer your hair has been gray/white, the less effective it is.)

The discovery was a byproduct of research on vitiligo, a condition that causes the loss of pigment in patches of skin.

Hmmmmm.  The water probably won't be too great a problem, but one could hope that the tops of very vain people's heads might explode from a build-up of hydrogen.

More schadenfreude.  Tee-hee!
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3725 A Little Rebellion

Saturday, May 11, 2013

God grant me the serenity to accept stupid people the way they are,

the courage to maintain my self control,

and the wisdom to know that if I act on my feelings I will go to jail.

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Received in an email from a friend:

Carl Gibson, NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Thursday 9 May 2013

We all know corporations aren’t people.

An Easy, 4-Step Method to End Corporate Personhood

If you knew you could end the concept of corporate personhood at the local level, and that everyone all over the country was doing it too, wouldn't you try it? All you need is $50 to $100 depending on what state you're in, a vehicle, and a carpool lane. A briefcase is helpful, but optional.

We all know corporations aren't people. The mere suggestion that an entity with an unlimited lifespan - that doesn't eat, sleep, make love, or even have a measurable pulse - is a legitimate "person" is laughable. So here's an easy way to prove that laughable concept to local law enforcement, and more importantly, your local judge.

Step One: Form Your Own Corporation
It's incredibly easy to form your own limited liability company, or LLC. Even though an LLC isn't officially recognized by the IRS, you can classify it as a partnership or an S corp. can walk you through the entire process. All you need to do is go to your local Secretary of State's office and request incorporation paperwork for your own LLC. The fee is generally $50 to $100 to form your own corporation. You may also need to request an Employer Identification Number from the IRS to make your corporation official. Once your corporation is formed and approved by your Secretary of State's staff, move on to step two.

Step Two: Drive in the Carpool Lane During Rush Hour
Most major cities have a designated lane for carpools, where vehicles containing two or more people can ride to bypass heavy traffic. This part is where a briefcase will come in handy, to give your corporate "person" some personality. Once your corporation's paperwork is safely secured in a briefcase, fasten the seat belt for both yourself and your corporate "person." Drive in the carpool lane with only yourself and your briefcase in the car. Make sure you signal appropriately, drive the speed limit, don't drive with any incriminating substances, and abide by all traffic laws. If you're lucky, you'll be pulled over by law enforcement.

Step Three: Perplex Local Law Enforcement
When you see those flashing lights in your rearview mirror, signal and pull over. If you have a smartphone or any sort of recording device, turn it on and record your conversation with the officer pulling you over. The cop will most likely give you a ticket for driving solo in the carpool lane. This is where you explain to the officer that you indeed have two people in your vehicle - yourself and your corporation, which the Supreme Court says is a person for all legal purposes. The cop likely won't buy it, and you'll be issued a traffic ticket and a court date. Now, don't fret, because this is a win-win situation for you.

Step Four: Get Out of a Traffic Ticket/Abolish Corporate Personhood
Your court date will likely be at least a month in advance, so you'll have plenty of time to prepare. Wear professional attire to your court appearance, and make sure you bring your corporate paperwork with you - again, a briefcase would be beneficial here. When you see the judge, explain your situation just as you did with the cop who pulled you over. The cop should be in the courtroom with you, anyway (and if not, you automatically get out of paying your ticket and court costs). The judge has two choices. He can uphold corporate personhood, agree that your corporation is a person and that the two of you can legally ride in the carpool lane. Or, the judge can force you to pay the ticket and the court fees, while laughing at the suggestion that your bundle of paperwork in your briefcase is a living, breathing person.

While the second option would probably cost you at least three figures and increase your insurance premiums, you have the greater victory of a lower court striking down corporate personhood, and simultaneously contradicting both the 2010 Supreme Court ruling as well as the 1886 ruling, which first established the concept of corporations as people.

Imagine if judges in all 50 states abolished corporate personhood in such a way! The Supreme Court wouldn't dare appeal or ignore the decisions of lower court judges in every state. And all it takes is a little rebellion and devious thinking on our part to get it done.

.

3724 Disturbing bits

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Common sense is what tells you that the world is flat.

-- Malaclypse the Younger --

---------------------------------------------

With the exception of those whose celebrity is based on sex appeal, there is an inverse relationship between your earning power and the distance between the top of your hipbones and the waistband of your clothing.

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New constructions driving me crazy:

• "Embarrassed of".  I guess they are confusing it with "ashamed of" and "frightened of".
• "Could of/would of".  Are they mishearing "have"? Or are they just lazy?

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The minor news this week is the installation of a spire on the top of 1 World Trade Center, which "makes it, at 1776 feet, the tallest building in the western hemisphere".  

Sorry, but I don't consider spires, radio towers, or the like to be part of the building.  Yeah, it was built, and it's on the building, but isn't that like my spiking my hair six inches high and then claiming to be six inches taller? 

I figure a building is as tall as its highest habitable floor.  All else is decoration.

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I have gained a lot of weight in the past 8 months.  I always told myself I wasn't too fat if I couldn't see my tummy past my bust.  I am now too fat,  by about a half inch.
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3723 Been a while

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Wow.  I hadn't realized it had been so long since my last post.  Everything's ok.  I just haven't had a lot of time, and haven't had much to say.

The Nugget has finally started walking with her cast.  Because the cast has a bend in the knee and ankle, she can't straighten that leg, so she's a bit lopsided and wants one hand held when she walks.  For the past 2.5 weeks she had been crawling dragging the cast or scooting on her bottom to get around.

Not that it's slowed her down any. 

About 10 days ago a little neighbor friend came to visit. The friend had been pushing a toy lawnmower that blows bubbles.  Her mommy told her to leave it at the end of Nugget's driveway.  Nugget happened to be in the yard when they arrived.

She took one look, yelled, "Mine!  Mine!  Mine!  Mine!" and scooted on her bottom across the lawn and down the driveway so fast no one could stop her.  Of course, once in possession of the coveted mower she couldn't stand up to push it, and it lost its charm.

I didn't know she knew that word (Mine!) or had those sentiments.

She's almost thirty pounds now, and the cast adds some weight.  Daughter is maybe 5'0" and 102 pounds, so the past few weeks, when Daughter had to lift and carry the Nugget everywhere, and Nugget wants to be picked up all the time because sitting on the floor next to Mommy's feet is not at all the same as standing and hugging Mommy's hip, have been hard on Daughter.  (I can't lift the Nugget at all any more.  She's getting tall.  She's about up to my waist.)  I've been spelling Daughter for a few hours every day, so she can at least get a shower and some rest for her back.

Next Tuesday they have an appointment with the cast doctor.  We'll find out then whether the cast can come off, get replaced with a smaller one, or has to stay on a little longer.

I'm going to check K-Mart for one-a-them bubble blowing lawn mowers to celebrate when the cast comes off.
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3722 Birthday girl

Sunday, April 28, 2013

One plus one does not equal two.  It approaches two as an upper or lower limit.

--  Silk  --

------------------------------------------------

 Her 2nd birthday was Friday:

3721 "Fun" day

Saturday, April 20, 2013

No two equals are the same.

-- Malaclypse the Younger --

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Daughter is away at her 15-year college reunion, leaving Hercules and Nugget home alone for three days.  Yesterday evening, Friday evening, Hercules took the Nugget to a playground, and went down a side with her on his lap.  She was wearing rubber-soled shoes, and her right shoe caught the side of the slide, and her leg got jerked back.  With the full weight of Hercules behind her.

I had agreed to babysit this morning while Hercules went on a trail-cleaning junket with his geocaching group, so when I saw his car in the driveway last night I went over to find out what time I should be there, and he mentioned that Nugget had a boo-boo, that she said her knee hurt, but he didn't see any swelling or bruising.  When he told me what had happened, I was very concerned, but she was already asleep for the night.

I went over there at 8 this morning, and it was pretty bad. Nugget was ok when sitting, and she could move the leg, but she kept saying boo-boo, pointing at her knee, and she couldn't put weight on it.  She'd stand on her left leg with the right foot held off the ground.  It was hard for Hercules to accept that she needed to go to the doctor or the ER, because a.) he REALLY didn't want to miss the trail cleaning, and b.) he's a tightwad and didn't want to pay the copay for what would probably be nothing.

I pushed, and he called the pediatrician.  Appointment at 11.  She sent us to the big hospital 40 minutes down the coast (they have a pediatric whatsis).  In the ER they xRayed her leg, and ... surprise!

Her Daddy went into the xRay room with her.  I waited in the hall, and it was heart-wrenching.  She'd been fine until then, but she didn't want to lie down, didn't want her leg in that position, didn't like that machine, her screams were terrible.  When she came out of the room she was fine again, and loved riding the bed back to the ER.

It's a spiral break in the tibia, so common they call it "the toddler break".  And playground slides are the usual cause.

The doctor who was to do the cast was in Princeton, which is an hour away.  We waited for him.

Nugget had so far been cheerful, but we were already past lunch and running into nap time.  We got her some food from the cafeteria, and some apple juice, and then she fell asleep on Daddy's lap.  The cast doctor arrived around 3:30, and wrapped her leg up right on Daddy's lap while she was still sound asleep.  She didn't even twitch.  With her new cast, in the hospital:

It's a hard cast, toes to just above the knee, with the knee slightly bent.  Four to six weeks.  It looks blue in the photo, but it's actually brilliant purple.

She slept in the car all the way home, and then for almost a hour longer after getting home.

She keeps asking us to take the cast off, and tries to push it off.  She knows what "broken" means, and every time I explain to her that her leg is broken, and the doctor fixed it, but we have to keep the "cast" (can you say "cast"?) on until it's all done fixing, she accepts that for about 15 minutes, then she wants it off again.

She can't stand or walk.  She's unbalanced with one knee bent, and putting weight on it even with the cast seems to hurt, but by this evening she'd learned how to use her little plastic chair as a crutch.  Figured that out all by herself.

The next few weeks are going to be rough on Daughter.  The Nugget weighs almost 30 pounds, and I haven't been able to pick her up for a few months.  The cast is surprisingly heavy, adds more weight.  Daughter probably weighs about 102.  We're going to have to figure some stuff out.  Anyone have any experience with a toddler in a leg cast?

------------------------------

I got a laugh from the doctors and nurses when I said that she'd been born in this hospital, and wouldn't be 2 until next week, so, uh, any chance she's still under warranty?
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3720 Waiting for news

Friday, April 19,  2013

You will find that the state is the kind of organization which,

though it does big things badly, does small things badly too. 

-- John Kenneth Galbraith --

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Seems like the ONLY news today is the Boston manhunt.  It's the same things over and over.  I had to go to the internet to find out what the news is from Texas.

The total now from the fertilizer plant explosion is 14 bodies recovered, about 60 people missing and unaccounted for, and more than 200 injured.

I guess that's just less exciting....
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3719 Some are more equal than others, or something....

Thursday, April 18, 2013

We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us,

but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.

-- Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus), rhetorician (c. 35-100) --

---------------------------------------------------------------

There was a huge explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant last night, at about 8 pm.  Authorities predict between five and fifteen dead and more than 160 injured, but they're still pulling people out of wreckage, so those numbers could go much higher.  The ones they are sure died are firefighters and a police officer.  It's a small town, and a large part of the town was flattened by the blast, including a nursing home.  So far, it is believed to be a chemical accident.

I shall wait to see if there is a big national fund set up for the injured and families of the dead, the people who lost their homes and possessions.  I shall watch for biographies of victims.  I shall wait for the politicians and their speeches.  Will there be people praying all over the nation?

I shall wait for someone to explain how a hurricane or a bomb attack is more terrible than an accident.  It isn't to the people involved.

Story at http://entertainment.verizon.com/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CDA5NSA5G0%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=931&page=1.  (And what a slap that Verizon put this under "entertainment".)

------

Later:  I turned on the TV at noon to see if they had better info, and found the entire newscast was about a memorial service for Boston.  If I lived in that little Texas town, I'd feel very ... snubbed.

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On Holy Thursday, before Easter, the Pope went to a youth detention center and washed the feet of young prisoners, both male and female.  The washing of feet by the pope, usually those of other priests, is a Holy Thursday tradition.  The washing of female feet most certainly is not, and many church traditionalists were horrified and angered.  Like spitting-mad.

Ok, ladies.  How does that make you feel?

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I spent some time one late evening wandering around "Dumb Political Quotes"-type sites, and I discovered something odd.  Members of one party seem very prone to really ridiculous statements, while members of the other party sometimes says things that that pretty stupid.  The difference is that the first party is prone to declarations demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge and logic, while the other party just gets names wrong, or uses the wrong word or terms offensive to the audience.

 For example, we have these from Dan Quayle:

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit . . . Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

Not a simple slip of the lip. The first one is stunning, literally.

I could fill this page with Bush-isms of the same amazing quality. Palin, anyone?

When you look at stupid quotes from the other party, there's very little to be found, and those that exist are just things like calling a female reporter "Sweetie", or getting a town or person's name or a country's language wrong. Or trying out a German phrase and calling yourself a sweet roll.  Obama's worst stupid statement seems to be referring to the 58 states. That's not so hard to understand. His mind runs ahead of his mouth. He was probably thinking of the 48 contiguous states, so it came out 58 (actually, "57 and one more to go"). Big deal. A far cry from a Mars atmosphere, or the impossibility of pregnancy from rape.

Am I biased?  Well, I know I'm biased, but I mean is my bias coloring what I observed?  Or DOES one party tend to promote their most stupid people?

-----------------------------

I have discovered Susie Sampson and her Tea Party Report videos.  They're funny.  Susie, in the guise of a conservative reporter, comes off with some real zingers.  Try this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjshdQc5cjg&list=UU1J66cMCW46dOueINxNbFtw, or this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aRDaSPuGKE&list=UU1J66cMCW46dOueINxNbFtw.

.

3718 Weird sighting!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Boys have swag; men have style; gentlemen have class.

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Reddit folks have been examining Boston photos, and have settled on two suspicious-looking dudes, mostly on the basis of the straps on their backpacks compared to FBI photos of the bomb bag.  One reddit suspect is nicknamed "The Blue Robe Guy" (because "robe" is so much more sinister than "jacket"). 

I looked at one of the many photos of B.R.G., and about fell off my chair.

I'd swear that's my late husband Jay.  Same color and texture of hair.  In some other photos he looks very tall, like Jay.  Same body type, slope from chest to little pot belly.  Same face, in general.  Same smile.  Same rounded shoulders and neck thrust.  Same slope at the back of his head.  Jay kept his beard slightly longer, but hey!  Beard!  Jay also had that same white patch at his chin.  Same nerdy look.  He always carried a backpack in his hands, never on his back.  The only difference is that Jay always wore glasses, could not wear contacts.

This IS Jay in his early 40s.  He actually would have been 61 last month.

But I guess if you're a ghost, you don't need glasses any more.  And you don't age.
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3717 Something to consider

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason

is that you’re stupid and you make bad decisions.

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• Boston is famous for the Boston Tea Party.
  
• Yesterday was Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, celebrating the beginning of the uprising against the government of the time.
• Yesterday was tax day.
• Those idiots in the mountains out west, stockpiling weapons to fight the government, refusing to pay taxes, you know, that crew, had been passing a rumor that the Obama administration was going to "manufacture a disaster in April that will allow them to take away even more of our rights."  April?  Where did that come from?

(Um, like, I'm confused.  Wasn't it the Patriot act that started that s**t?  You know, that multi-hundred page "law" that was written before 9/11, just waiting for an opportunity to get passed?  And wasn't it that same administration that decided that the President could declare war without the approval of Congress, in direct opposition with the very clear dictates of the Constitution?  Oh well.  I guess some people can't keep their presidents straight.)

Anyway, the Boston bombing doesn't have "all the earmarks" of a Muslim terrorist organization.  Anyone can get a pressure cooker.  Anyone can find out how to build a bomb.  There was no suicide bomber to ensure the timing.  There was a second blast, but in the middle east it goes off in the same area to get the emergency responders, not a block away.  So what "earmarks" are they talking about?  What ethnicity is likely to be able to leave a large heavy package on the street with no one wondering about it?

It looks domestic to me.

It looks like a declaration of civil war.
.

3716 Sorry Sari Seller

Sunday, April 14, 2013

It is my firm belief that it is a mistake to hold firm beliefs.

-- Malaclypse the Younger --

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I would dearly love to use tussah silk saris for curtains.  I'd need six for the living room, four for the dining room, and two or three for each of the larger bedrooms.  I buy saris on eBay, where you can get beautiful, new, printed, silk saris for less than $30 including shipping, and fancy gold-threaded, embroidered, and/or beaded used saris for even less.  Unfortunately, the saris in my price range tend to be unique in colors and patterns, and I don't want to mix patterns.  I want them all to match on any one window.

It's next to impossible to find several matching saris for less than a few hundred dollars each.

So last night when I accidentally came across a seller who not only had close to a dozen NEW tussa silk saris in each of two patterns in colors that would work for me, I got really excited and placed bids on a bunch of them that were going to end overnight.  I woke this morning to find that I had "won" all that I wanted --- but that my bids had been cancelled....

Duh?  Why?

...because the seller had screwed up, and had listed the same two saris (one in each pattern) multiple times.  She sent me a note that she really had only one of each, that I could have, but she'd have to cancel the others.  I told her I can't use one of each.  Cancel them all.

I am so very disappointed.
.

3715 Some of my oldest friends

Saturday, April 13, 2013

The internet didn’t originate any of the abhorrent behavior

you see on it. It just gave people an outlet for it.

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I have no idea who gets credit for this.  I'm passing it on because it made me laugh.  Yup, I've got every one of them!

3714 Mother-in-laws

Friday, April 12, 2013

Facts do not cease to exist just because they are ignored.

--------------------------------------------------

I just read an old online article about things mother-in-laws should never say to their son's wife.  The comments were a litany of horror stories.

Got me thinking about my in-laws, and my relationship with SIL Hercules.  I think with Ex#2's mother I had it about as bad as any of the horror stories, and I think I've been pretty good with Hercules.

----------------------------

Ex#1's mother was pretty much a nonentity.  She was one of those quiet mouses.  We had to be very careful around her, because if she sensed the least tension anywhere, she'd burst into tears and take to her bed. She reacted to everything like an abused puppy.  She had grown up in an orphanage, a real honest-to-god orphanage!  One of those dreary stone warehouses, and no one had ever been kind to her or taught her the things you have to know to function in life.  I don't think she was bright enough to figure anything out herself.  Although her occasional jobs had been as a waitress at lunch counters in places like Woolworths, she had never learned about cooking.  Everything was boiled.  She'd throw chicken breasts, skin and all, in a pot with no seasonings, and boil the hell out of them.  Steaks were boiled.  One day she asked if I'd like her to "boil some tea" for me, and sure enough, she threw a handful of tea bags in a stewpot, and boiled them for ten minutes.  I had to drink it, or she'd have cried.  (I suggested we add a bunch of ice and sugar and make iced tea.)

Very soon after Ex#1 and I divorced (and Ex#1 had remarried within six months to a woman with three children) Ex#1's father left her.  As Ex#1 put it, "He didn't know it was so easy to change things!"

I felt SO guilty.  I don't suppose things were too bad for her, because she had two doting married sons living close by, but I don't really know.   I still feel sorry for her.

--------------------------

Ex#2's mother was my only real experience with a mother-in-law, and that was pretty bad.

When Ex#2 and I were dating, she went to mass every Wednesday and twice on Sunday.  When we announced our engagement, she started going every single day.  I naively thought she was just very religious.  After we were married, she dropped to just Sundays, and when I asked him why, Ex#2 told me that she had been going to church every day to pray that he'd break up with me.  She had always planned, since birth, for her oldest son to be a priest, so his marrying me was a blow.  And worse, I was a divorcee.  She had never said anything to him about any of that.

She hated me.  (More, I think, than she hated the woman her father had married in his 70s after her mother had died.  She despised her so much it scared me.  I'd never seen such hate for no apparent reason.)

She was the most passive-aggressive person I've ever met.  She never said anything nasty directly TO me (about me was a different story), but she made her feelings known.

She was a high-up sales rep in one of those companies that does home parties, selling jewelry.  She recruited reps, who recruited their own team of reps, and everyone climbed the management tree.  At the time I knew her, she had a huge territory, with over 200 people working directly under her.  There were prizes for the highest sales figures, and at her level the prize was a Longines watch, solid gold.  Note that the cheapest stainless steel and leather Longines today goes for over $1,200, and she was winning one, two, three gold watches a year.

She kept the first for herself.  The second went to her daughter.  Third to her foster daughter, then her other daughter-in-law, then her best friend, then her other best friend, then her cleaning lady....  At first I wasn't hurt.  She'd known all those other people longer than me.  I didn't understand until she started donating  them to the church and the nursing home for their rummage sales.  Note that the watch didn't matter to me so much.  I'm very hard on watches.  It was the outright snub.  Especially since she made it a point to tell me what she'd done with the latest, and was annoyed that I didn't tll her what a wonderful person she was for donating them.

By the way, everybody in her small town thought she was the most wonderful person because she took in a series of foster children, worked to raise money for the local catholic nursing home, and handled the church clothing donations every year.  What nobody seemed to notice is that the foster children were always teenage girls, who were expected to clean her house and take care of her kids.  Even better than free housekeepers and babysitters, since she got paid to keep them.  She stopped volunteering for the nursing home when the priest mentioned that they couldn't take people for free, no matter how much they had supported the home.  And on several occasions, I'd seen her, her friends, her daughter, and the daughter's friends sorting through the clothing donations and taking things they liked.

We were expected to dance attendance on her at every holiday, family occasion, vacation, EVERY period of time off, and random weekends when summoned because she needed our help with some project, even after we had moved halfway across the country to St. Louis.  Ex#2 was incapable of saying no.  I went literally years without seeing my mother.  He and I never had a vacation, except once when we went camping on a weekend.  (P.S.,  I hate camping, but he refused to pay for a hotel.)

And every time we visited, she had jobs for us to do.  We never had any kind of vacation, period.  Worse, we had to work harder on office projects before we left, and then play frantic catch-up when we returned, so we NEEDED some break.

Every year after Christmas she had a dinner for her sales reps, where she handed out gifts to everyone, and additional special gifts to high sellers.  Every year I spent my Christmas to New Year's "vacation" wrapping close to 300 gifts.  I am very good at gift wrapping.  I make sharp corners that I'm proud of.  But what she gave me to wrap with was scraps of used paper (often on its third or fourth go-round) that she had saved and collected over the previous year - wrinkled, torn, with scraps of tape randomly stuck to it.  The ribbon scraps were worse, and every package had to have ribbon.  It killed my back.  I hated doing it, but there was no getting out of it.  Eleven years.  At least I was able to hide in my wrapping corner on the floor for three days.

(It wasn't 'til I was much older that it occurred to me that I could have just bought several rolls of wrapping paper and ribbon on sale and taken them with me, although that would have been harder when we lived in Missouri and had to fly.)


I can't handle cold.  I get chilblains.  She always assigned us the bed in the attic.  The dusty uninsulated attic.  There were two unoccupied bedrooms downstairs (it was a big old south Jersey farmhouse) but we got the attic.  And we had to keep the door closed "so the house wouldn't lose heat".  One Christmas Ex#2 gave me a space heater so I could use it in the attic (yes, for Christmas, and so I didn't even have it for the three days we'd already been there).  Our  next visit, the space heater was gone.  His mother mentioned offhandedly that she "may have given it to" so-and-so.

So many things, but those were the things that galled me the most.  Well, actually, there was worse.  After the divorce I was expected to send Daughter to visit for a month or more every summer.  When Daughter came back from those visits, she was angry and sharp with me for another month.  I'd turn around and find Daughter glaring at me.  When she went to visit my mother in Florida, she was fine on return, but not the NJ grandmother.  I wonder what they said to her about me.

She taught her son to be deathly passive, without the strength of aggression.  Actually, that was the worst.

-----------------------------

Jay's mother died before we were married.  His father was a roll-your-eyes frustrating handful, but never nasty.  He even liked me a lot, more than Jay's ex, and said so.

-----------------------------

Anyone have any MIL stories of their own?
.

3713 Meme

Sunday, April 7, 2013

You teach a dog not to do something. You teach a cat not to get caught doing something.

------------------------------

Accepting the challenge from http://becsagain.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-meme-meme-my-kingdom-for-meme.html and http://rockygrace.blogspot.com/2013/03/time-for-pop-quiz.html:

I'm supposed to start with 11 random facts about me.  Blah.  I've done that kind of thing in this blog multiple times over the years.  There's nothing left.

Questions for those going forward (from RockyGrace):
1.  What is one thing you failed at?
That's a philosophical question involving the definition of failure and individual response to it.  I might intend to do or be something, and it doesn't work out, but I don't consider myself having failed at it.  For example, the original intent was to be out of the country house and have it on the market by late summer of 2011.  I'm nowhere near that.  One might say I've failed.  But I figure it's just the way it worked out.  I guess I don't internalize failure, even when I could have done something to change the course of events. Like, there's a reason, exterior to me, for why it worked out that way. Sort of a fate thing. Maybe I just don't want anything that badly that I feel bad when I don't get it.

2.  What is your favorite season?
Spring!  Summer is second.  I get depressed by fall, and hibernate in winter.

3.  Do you ever wish you were someone else?  If so, who?
No.  I'd like to be taller, but I'd still be me.

4.  Is one of your children your favorite?
I have only one.

5.  How often do you change your sheets?  (Hey, I'm just curious ...)
When I walk into the bedroom and say, "What's that smell?"  Or when I'm expecting company.  Otherwise, who cares?

6.  If you won a hundred million dollars, what's the first thing you'd do?  (Besides call a lawyer, obv.)
Move myself and Daughter's family to nicer houses in a nicer place, redecorate, set Daughter and her husband up so working is an interest, not a necessity, and then start researching charities.

7.  What is one thing you're afraid of?
Something happening to Daughter or Nugget.

8.  Do you have a family member you argue with?  Other than the spouse/kids?
No.  Not much family left.  Sweet Sister is not someone anyone could argue with without feeling bad.

9.  Have you ever intentionally physically hurt someone?
No.  Not really.  Daughter got her thigh slapped once.  I slapped Jay once after he was bed bound, in a fit of frustration, but I slapped him on his left shoulder which he couldn't feel because of the brain tumor, but it left a hand-shaped red mark that flashed guilt at me for hours.  None of those were intentional.  Other than youthful battles with my brother, nope.  Don't think so.

10.  Ever broken someone's heart?
Probably several, including Ex#2.  Sometimes you just have to do that. 

11.  What do you regard as the happiest moment of your life?
Wow.  Many happy moments, but none stand out as the happiest.  Maybe my first date with The Man.  That was a full day of pretty incredible happy moments, one after another.


Questions for those going forward (from Becs):
1. If you don't like your name, what do you wish it was?
I don't particularly dislike my name.  I just like "Silk" better.

2. How many pets have you had? Which was your favorite?
Cats: Snowflake, Smokey, Ciddy Kitty, Peggy, Tigger, Suzie, Miss Thunderfoot.
Dogs: Sparky, Puppy (Phaedra), Pretty, Ninja, Baby
Birds: Jakie (budgy), a pair of Easter chicks that grew up to be roosters, Mr. & Mrs. (lovebird pair), Robin and Birdie (robin and cow bird chicks raised from hatchlings to wild release)
Mice: Mousies 1, 2, and 3 (a series of them captured wild and tamed, until they got loose)
Fish:  Tank full of unnamed guppies.


3. If you could travel back in time (and it would have to be back), when and where would you go and why?
Back to when I was working for IBM.  I'd work less and pay more attention to life.

4. Is there a sport you're good at or wish you were good at?
Nope.  No interest in most sports.

5. What movie must you always watch when you catch it, clicking through the cable channels?
None.  Not that I don't watch any movie more than once, but nothing will grab me like that.

6. You have just been told you must grab your family and a few dear possessions and flee your house immediately. You will never go back to your homeland. Where do you go?
"Homeland" implies going outside the US?  Hmmmm.  Probably southern France.

7. If you believe in (a) god, have you ever felt his/her/its presence?
Not a god in the usual sense, but I have had some experiences that lead me to believe in an alternate existence, and an explanation for the purpose of our lives.

8. You have just been invited to speak before a joint session of Congress (or the ruling political body in the country where you live). The subject of the speech is up to you. What do you choose?
Congressional Term Limits.

9. Was George Bailey ("It's a Wonderful Life") a schmuck?
I hate that movie.  In #5 above, that's one I click away from as fast as possible.  As to George himself, no opinion.

10. Did you have a time in your life when you believed everything Ayn Rand wrote?
Who?  Well, yeah, I know who.  I read her novels sometime in the '60s, and I wasn't impressed.  I didn't think I'd want to live in her world.

11. Who is your favorite relative, living or dead?
Nugget, of course.

Now I'm supposed to come up with 11 questions to pass on.  Nah, I don't think I will.  If you want to answer some questions, use the above.
.

3712 Light and bright

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Your life is the fruit of your own doing.  You have no one to blame but yourself.

-- Joseph Campbell --

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, the Nugget, Daughter, and I walked along the bay.  The Nugget loves the sand at the beach, but since the hurricane you have to be very careful of bits of wood from smashed docks.  They often have nails.  That's worse than the usual broken glass.

Nugget picked up what looked like a small oblong rock but turned out to be a gray-green-brown chunk of solid dock foam.  Nugget held it up to Daughter and asked, "Wa dis?"  Daughter said, "Foam. That's foam."

Nugget looked confused, peered at it, poked at it, then put it up to her ear and said,

"Hello?  Daddy?"

-----------------------------

The Easter bunny came! 

Mostly bringing toys and stuffed bunnies.  And jelly beans!

-----------------------------------

If you love lace, textiles, embroidery, vintage clothing, beautiful things, sometime when you have some time go to http://www.vintagetextile.com/edwardian.htm. 

Click on the various periods across the top to look at other stuff from other periods.  The "gallery" is full of items that have been sold. 

Beautiful!  They just don't make stuff like this any more.
.

3711 Baked beans?

Tuesday, March 2, 2013

The art to April Fools’ Day is to come up with pranks that aren’t in the least

cruel, but are funny and interesting. It CAN be done, but

being mean is easier,

and dumber.

-- Ian Osmond --

-----------------------------------------------------------------

The past few days I've been having a problem with excessive underarm odor.  Washing doesn't seem to make a difference; neither does antiperspirant.  My clothing quickly picks up the odor and retains it.

My activity level hasn't changed.  There's no sweat, I'm dry.  The only thing that has changed is that I am eating a lot more fruits and vegetables and a lot less meat.  (Except beans.  I don't like beans and rarely eat them.)

I don't understand.

What's really weird is that it doesn't smell like normal perspiration --- it smells like beans.  Barbeque baked beans.

-----------------------------

I'm eating more veggies because I've discovered a farmer's market.

It's not really what I, a country girl, would normally think of as a farmer's market - a weekend affair, outdoors, with booths manned by local farmers selling their own produce.  It's actually like a large grocery store, indoors, open every day, heaps of produce in huge bins, and they are selling a lot of stuff that couldn't possibly have been grown locally at this time of year.

At the A&P, blueberries are ridiculously expensive, like almost $5 a pint.  At the farmer's market, although prices fluctuate, I have been able to  get a quart of blueberries for less than $2.  Everything is so much cheaper, and so much fresher, and there's a huge variety, some stuff I'd never heard of before.

I've found that what I buy there is ripe, and lasts longer in the refrigerator, possibly because it's handled/bruised less.

Last trip I bought two pints of blueberries, three apples, two oranges, two baby eggplants, a huge bunch of asparagus (about 40 stalks, took me five meals to eat it all), baby bok choy, kale, carrots, two large sweet onions, big brown mushrooms, ruffled tree mushrooms, snow peas, two small zucchini, a cucumber, five little things that look like sweet potatoes or yams, but they're dark red on the outside and creamy white inside, baby spinach, five tomatoes "on the vine", a loaf of poppy seed filled bread, a loaf of chocolate-filled bread, and I've probably left something off that list.  My bill came to less than $25. 

That was about 10 days ago, and I haven't finished it all yet.  I'll have a stir-fry for lunch.

Oh, and in the back they have a polish deli, with pickle barrels!  I bought some half-sours.  I LOVE half-sours, and they're difficult to find anywhere these days.

Daughter is worried that I'm not getting enough protein, but you really don't need high quality protein (like meat or beans or soy) more than once or twice a week, and I get enough lower quality in the yogurt and cheeses I eat every day.

Seems like with all that chlorophyll I shouldn't smell at all, let alone like barbeque baked beans.

------------------------------

Becs:  http://www.yelp.com/biz/route-9-farmers-market-inc-south-amboy.  They get crowded after work and on weekends, but reviewers say it's still worth it.  There's an excellent Thai restaurant next door.
.

3710 If I should suddenly disappear...

Sunday, March 31, 2013

"'Wrong' is one of those concepts that depends on witnesses."

-- Scott Adams --

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I may have started a war.

I bought a pin (brooch) on eBay, item number 380599269925.  There was a photo.  The pin looked nice.  The enlargement looked like the pin probably needed a good cleaning. 

Other than the title, "Grandmas estate beautiful flower brooch", there was no further description of the particular pin.  The seller claims that the items he/she sells come from Grandma's estate,

All items are in 100% great

shape - crack & chip free! All of her lovely things are

100% guaranteed to be loved.

I list 500 - 1000 new pieces of her jewelry from her

stores and estate every week. She loved to collect

jewelry.

and so on.  500-1000 items per week?  From Grandma's estate?  Well, it does say "stores".  Maybe she sold jewelry.

There were only two bids.  I got it for $1.25, plus shipping.  I also bought another pin from the same seller.

He/she combines shipping.  From the description,

1 ITEM @ REGULAR COST

2 - 5 ITEMS $4.50

6 or MORE, PRIORITY MAIL

However, later in the description,

1 item shipped @ regular cost.

2 - 5 items for $3.95

6 or more will be shipped Priority Mail.

Hmmmm.  So how much postage will I be paying for the two items?

Most sellers have eBay automatically calculate combined shipping.  When I looked at this seller's invoice, shipping had not been combined.  So I sent an email asking for a new invoice with combined shipping, pointing out the discrepancy in the two versions in the description, and saying that I expected to pay $3.95.   (The description, by the way, is a contract, and under contract law errors are to the detriment of the party who drew up the contract.)

He/she changed the invoice, with $4.50 for shipping.

I was pissed, but decided it wasn't worth fighting over $.55, since eBay complaint forms don't address this problem, so it would be a pain to report it.  However, I didn't pay immediately (I usually pay within minutes).  The seller obviously uses the exact same template for every item, changing only the photo and the title.  So I waited to see if new listings had been corrected, or if they still had two different shipping offers.

Hmmmm.  The seller did not bother to fix the problem.

After several days checking to see if the seller had decided what to charge, and seeing no correction on new items, I paid, and waited for the pins to arrive.

One pin was beautiful.  The other, also described as "beautiful", was pure crap.  There was no silver plating remaining on the base metal (yeah, silver, even though the photo looks like gold-tone), except for a tiny spot on the very tip of the leaf closest to the flower.  From the photo, it looked like the enamel on the blossom was ok, with silver edges on the petals, and spots of dirt here and there.  In actuality, the enamel is mostly gone, large areas of pitting on the petals.  The thing is pure crap.  Junk.  I'd be embarrassed to put it up for sale.

So now it's time to leave feedback.  I am certainly not leaving a positive.  That leaves neutral or negative. 

I did a little research on this seller.  He/she purchases those large volume lots of scrap jewelry on eBay, lots usually listed as "for parts and repair".    I suspect he/she is reselling what other sellers consider crap.  And it appears that "Grandma" is eBay.

The seller already has a slew of Negs, many complaints of buyers having to pay two-way shipping for crap.

He/she does accept returns.  Most eBay sellers will refund the item price if you aren't satisfied, but do not refund the shipping, and require that the buyer pay the return shipping - UNLESS they sent the wrong item, or it was grossly misrepresented, then they will accept those costs.  This seller says the buyer has to pay to return the item, and only the bid will be refunded.  No apparent shipping refund just because you don't like it.  So if I return it, I will end up paying the two shipping costs for a piece of crap.

After a lot of thought, I left what is only my second negative feedback in 16 years and over 3800 purchases on eBay:  "Photo is deceptive, no description, pin is crap, I refuse to pay return postage."

The seller freaked.

He/she has formally requested through eBay that I change my feedback, and sent this note:

hi there
if you not happy with an item just email me and i will be more the happy to refund you there is never a reason for bad feedback .. i will be more then happy to refund you and you no need to send back .. if your worry about shipping price back.. that is fine. all i care about is everyone loveing her things
not in it for the money. the kids get that
so pleaseee fix my ratings and email me i will be more then happy to refund you
god bless
scott and the twins  

"Her" things?  Oh, well.

So I went to eBay's feedback change page, and checked the box that said no change, feedback is accurate.  It's interesting that the seller claimed to eBay that I had contacted him/her and said I'd left the Neg in error and I wanted to change it.  All the more reason not to.

So why am I worried about disappearing?  The seller has my address.  He/she lives about 20 minutes up the road.

I have already moved the van out of the driveway, so it won't be associated with this address.  Unfortunately, I can't disassociate MYSELF from this address.
.

3709 Stolen quotes

Sunday, March 31, 2013

When it comes to thought, some people stop at nothing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found these on DanSix4Smith's Facebook whatsis.  I don't know whether he wrote them, original to him, or whether he finds them, like I do with my green quotes.  Whatever.  I like them.

The most important decisions are not to be made with the mind; they are to be made with the heart. So when you have an important decision to make, check in with how you feel, not how you think. The heart speaks truth, while the mind can get confused from the many thoughts and programs the world expects you to assimilate.

Everything changes when you start to emit your own frequency rather than absorb the frequencies around you, when you start imprinting your intent on the universe rather than receiving the imprint from existence. In other words pay attention to your attitude & ways before you point the finger or blame someone. You control your thoughts & emotions not others.

When you strike out, you always strike in. Any weapon you use to strike, - clenched hand, angry voice, closed heart withholding love, - is double-sided with one edge always cutting deep into yourself. Sometimes a weapon is necessary, but use it wisely, and remember that the cost of using one are your own wounds.

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow. Worrying, you get stuck going over the same things over and over again without making any progress. Instead, spend some time with nature to calm your mind and feed your soul.

Your body speaks the truth. When in doubt, ignore the thoughts in your mind, and pay attention to your body, - it doesn't lie.

Everyone has their own rhythm of living, - for some it's faster, for other it's slower. When you are forced to live outside your own rhythm, it is exhausting. Remember to keep coming back to your own rhythm.

3708 Phish hook?

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one's own

despised and unwanted feelings.

-- Alice Miller, psychologist and author (1923-2010) --

----------------------------------------------------------

Actual Subject line and content of an email received today -

Aol.com your accont is loked

(followed by a bogus link to AOL security.)

Gee, do you think it might be fake?
.

3707 Geography

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Friends should always tell you the truth.  But please don’t.

--  Loius C. K. --

---------------------------------------------

This had been forwarded by my sister. 
 

The Geography of a Woman

Between 18 and 22, a woman is like Africa . Half discovered, half wild, fertile and naturally Beautiful!

Between 23 and 30, a woman is like Europe. Well developed and open to trade, especially for someone of real value.

Between 31 and 35, a woman is like Spain, very hot, relaxed and convinced of her own beauty.

Between 36 and 40, a woman is like Greece, gently aging but still a warm and desirable place to visit.

Between 41 and 50, a woman is like Great Britain, with a glorious and all conquering past.

Between 51 and 60, a woman is like Israel, has been through war, doesn't make the same mistakes twice, takes care of business.

Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Canada, self-preserving, but open to meeting new people.

After 70, she becomes Tibet .

Wildly beautiful, with a mysterious past and the wisdom of the ages.

An adventurous spirit and a thirst for spiritual knowledge.

THE GEOGRAPHY OF A MAN

Between 1 and 80, a man is like Iran ,
ruled by a pair of nuts.

-----------------------------------------------

BTW, if anyone forwards me stuff in an email, if it didn't originate with them, I click NO links, even if I recognize the website linked, because it's too easy to disguise the link.  If there's a video imbedded in the email, I won't play it unless I'm certain it's from youtube.com or vimeo.com, because nasty code can be downloaded  in videos.