Another rainy, overcast, cruddy day here. Think I may just call the whole day a loss and go back to bed.
Tunch is being ornery as hell, especially after his incident last night. I was putting the vacuum away and decided to chase Rosie and yelled “I’m coming to get ya” and ran at her with the vacuum, she freaked out and scared the hell out of Tunch, who was in the box of a computer I am taking apart and fixing for my brother. He jumped and somehow got himself wedged in the plastic frame of the front of the tower computer, which was off, and this caused him to go insane, and he flipped down the basement stairs with the front of the computer wedged around his mid-section, where I finally got to him, as he had somehow managed to wedge his fat self and the front of the computer underneath the stairs and was making ungodly sounds. His rear legs were doing the rabbit double kick cats do when they are trying to get something off them or away from them, but his back feet weren’t touching anything, and he was staying wedged and getting more and more worked up. I finally got him loose, and he spent a good bit of time in the basement really pissed off at the world but in one piece and uninjured. It was really funny and really scary at the same time.
My main goal for today is two loads of laundry, doing some dishes, and finishing the Borgias first episode.
Barry
“..and finishing the
Borgias first episode. excellent bottle of red wine, along with a steak.”Fixed your day for you.
joeyess
with Tunch in such a mood and your role in causing said mood, I wouldn’t fall asleep if I were you.
danimal
Mops…and now vacuums. Cole, for the good of your entire household, hire a maid!
Elizabelle
You do realize the creature who put this debacle into play … was not Rosie, for once.
NCAA Final Four bball this afternoon.
Go VCU! (Virginia Commonwealth U)
arguingwithsignposts
Recently, Lady Smudge somehow got a plastic bag wrapped around her back legs and I thought the world was coming to an end. I had to corner her to take it off before she tore the whole house apart. I sympathize.
Joey Maloney
I am laughing at the thought of Tunch wearing a computer case bezel around his midsection.
Now my cat, Mr. Crazypants McBiteymouth, came back from his nocturnal roaming this morning with a huge, bloody abraision over his left eye. It looked dirty so I used a Q-tip to put some peroxide on it and sure enough it foamed up like crazy. And Mr. Crazypants Did. Not. Like. He went hopping around the apartment, apparently trying to bite off the top of his own head to make the weird feeling stop.
Like an idiot, I didn’t take warning and wait, but instead tried to put some Neosporin on the wound right away. For my trouble I got a huge chunk bitten out of my hand and the cat went yowling across the apartment and under the couch where he continued to yowl at the top of his lungs for a good ten minutes, lunging and slashing at me when I tried to drag him out.
I ended up using the Neosporin on myself.
ColleenSTL
Your story reminds me of an incident that happened several years ago at the house of a friend with cats. I arrived with several large candles in one of those plastic grocery bags, which I set down on the kitchen floor. Her curious cat stuck its head into the bag and got snagged by the plastic handle, at which point the cat started literally bouncing off walls like the ball in a pinball machine trying to get loose! So funny!
Punchy
Well, I decided to walk all 5 greyhounds at once this morning (2 owned + 3 dogsat). As pack dogs, they pack it up for the first half mile, walking in stride. After that, however, not so much…lets just say the leashes are all braided together down to about the last 18 inches.
Thank fuckin GOD we didn’t see a squirrel or rabbit, or I would have likely been dragged hundreds of feet at 30mph.
Superluminar
“somehow got himself wedged in”. I think somehow is doing a lot of work in this sentance.
stuckinred
Anybody seen the Manatee? I need more guidance on my wheel bearing job.
Phyllis
Sunny, warmer, but breezy here. I’m recovering from a week-long federal grantsmanship training course–in hopes that tonight’s dreamworld does not again have me writing a gibberish narrative on a topic I can’t quite grasp.
MikeJ
@stuckinred: Lift with your legs. As a bearer, you’ll be lifting a lot more than just tires. Protect your back, lift with your legs.
Josie
Okay, so let’s sum this up. You are chasing animals with a vacuum cleaner, Rosie is freaking, and Tunch is in a death cage match with a computer frame. I wouldn’t blame Lily if she just decided to leave home.
Comrade Mary
@Joey Maloney: Ow!
The latest I’ve heard about cleaning wounds, animal or human, is to NOT use hydrogen peroxide because it actually damages the cells (and hurts and causes flailing). Cleaning with warm soapy water is all you need to do instead, maybe adding a tiny smear of antibiotic ointment and a breathable bandage.
I’ve been doing this with with my self-inflicted cycling injuries, switching to those transparent Tegaderm bandages after the wound stops bleeding. I’m amazed at how quickly and cleanly things heal now.
gogol's wife
I’m glad Tunch is all right. My fat cat Louis looks so funny when he does the rabbit kick, especially since his legs are black-and-white striped.
I was really offended by Alessandra Stanley’s review in the NYT yesterday, where she lumped the Borgias and the Kennedys together, then went on to compare Joseph Kennedy to Saddam Hussein, Mubarak, and Qaddafi. She also said he did the same things as Rodrigo Borgia, only “less bloodily.” How many people did Joe Kennedy murder, again?
JCT
@Punchy:
Sorry, I’m laughing at the absolutely awesome visual. And poor Tunch!
I’ve been traveling and in my absence the younger beagle managed to get a “bad snek” while on a walk. Poor dog ended up with an evil lower GI syndrome that made the entire household sad. She was sick enough that she wouldn’t eat (!! for a BEAGLE) but checked out OK at the vet. I called one night at the end of my trip only to have my call interrupted by my husband repeatedly telling the beagle to “stop that, get out of there and No-no!”. Yes indeed, she was all better finally and as freaking naughty as ever. Quite the relief.
Oh and the damn cat seems to have brought in an entire nest of mice to “play with” in the house. Too bad that he gets bored so quickly as now they are everywhere.
Pets. Sigh.
joe from Lowell
When I was little, I thought it would be pretty to tie a balloon to my dog’s collar, and another to her tail. Then she looked back and saw the scary things floating above her, and ran away from them.
OH MY GOD, THEY’RE CHASING ME! RUN FASTER!
R-Jud
Quinn, the smaller of our two cats, literally runs up walls sometimes during her daily CRAZYGONUTS hour. She once ran up a cork bulletin board with her claws out and got stuck there, twisting and writhing and yowling.
Naturally she fell loose just as I stopped laughing long enough to fire up the camera.
Montysano
Absolutely perfect day here in north Alabama. Off to the Holi celebration at the local India Assn. clubhouse.
M-Pop
Poor family! I can just imagine poor Tunch – comical and sad at the same time. Glad he’s alright :)
It’s sunny and mild here today after two days of rain (which we really, really need so I’m not complaining), so I’m going to finish cleaning the pool and the old man’s going to sweep the roof.
trollhattan
@ John Cole
You are the Inspector Clouseau of domestic life. Must. Hire. Video. Crew.
Linnaeus
Welcome to Seattle (at least at this time of year).
Short Bus Bully
John you play WoW, you know the rules…
SCREENSHOT OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN
Joey Maloney
@Comrade Mary: Yeah, the peroxide was the wrong choice for this kind of wound. But it’s still the best choice for a puncture on a cat. Their skin heals so quickly that if you don’t get the whole depth cleaned right away you can end up with an abcess, and there’s really no good substitute for that HO foaming action.
In any case, I snuck up on Mr. Crazypants during his afternoon nap and dabbed on the antibiotic ointment.
Maude
@Joey Maloney:
I healed a cat’s broken tail with triple antibotic ointment.
I iz now a vet.
Edit: small joke.
Chat Noir
In late February, someone at Balloon Juice posted the U-stream link to the Decorah Eagles. First eaglet hatched early this morning. Two more on the way. Wish I could remember who originally posted it to say thanks because it’s been fascinating to watch and to learn about bald eagles.
And poor Tunch. Cats are freaked out easily (at least mine are).
licensed to kill time
Ok, that description of the Tunch and Cole Follies made me belly laugh before my first cup of coffee. Thank you, nice start to the day!
Comrade Mary
@Joey Maloney: You’re right, puncture wounds are different. I just preach the gospel of Tegaderm every chance I get.
Off on my bike on a glorious day now! Anyone want to make a bet on whether I injure myself?
kdaug
@Maude: Very small.
MonkeyBoy
The double-kick is also used do disembowel prey or an enemy. Encouraging this in cats is not a good way to loose weight.
Tunch
Keep laughing you cocksuckers. I’m going to take a shit on Cole’s jacket and piss all over the basement.
Open up a can of tunafish for me Cole, and I won’t beat your ass like a sorry little ginger.
Assholes.
WereBear
RJ, in kittenhood, did the “put my head through the plastic bag loop” thing. When he heard me coming down the hall, he must have panicked, knowing he was not supposed to be inspecting my lunch so closely, so he pinballed all over the living room, whacking my lunch on every possible surface.
The lunch meat and cheese were okay, but the grapes… well, you can imagine the grapes.
Gin & Tonic
Since this is an open thread, my Google News feed tells me that Glenn Beck is “uncomfortable” with the Donald. You know you’ve bought a first-class ticket on the express train to Crazytown when…
Gretchen
Why do you live there? I lived all my life up north (Detroit, Chicago), and was shocked my first year in Kansas City that that litlle bleb of cold and snow between long, pleasant springs and falls, was their idea of a winter. Just enough to make you appreciate the spring! Move south-er!
Incoherent Dennis SGMM
Hey kids, in this era of cutbacks and wailing about the debt, what’s the one thing we really need?
Whoever guessed “A Flying Humvee” is 100% correct! That’s right; the Pentagon wants a flying Humvee with a 250 mile range. Now, while it may not be possible to really build the thing, DARPA is going to spend $55,000,000 to study the idea. At least $9,000,000 has already been committed. The people who think that you can build a lightly armored four-wheel-drive vehicle that can hold four people, be easily converted to an aircraft, and then fly 250 miles should also be committed.
Davis X. Machina
We here in Maine enjoy all four seasons: Winter, June, July and August.
Mary G
@arguingwithsignposts: My cat has also managed to get a plastic grocery bag tangled up in her legs and still out-hopped me for a good half an hour before I could corral her and try to get it off. I finally had to get the scissors. Of course it was all my fault and she sulked for two days.
Gin & Tonic
@Davis X. Machina: And here I thought the four seasons were pre-winter, winter, mud and black flies.
Yutsano
@Incoherent Dennis SGMM: This could just be me, but I have a hard time calling money spent on DARPA wasted. They get sent on fool’s errands like this often, come back, say it won’t work, but look at all the other neat stuff we came up with in the meantime. They’re actually a decent factory for new ideas. Plus $55 million isn’t gonna do much for fixing the deficits and such.
fraught
Just to clear this up since I’m relatively new here: Other humans won’t live with you?
KCinDC
John Cole, I demand you denounce this disgusting cartoon by John Cole.
Roger Moore
@Incoherent Dennis SGMM:
Of course the whole idea of DARPA is to try out crazy ideas to see if we can make them work. A lot of the time they really are crazy, but once in a while those crazy ideas actually work and you wind up with things like the Internet. I’m guessing that the first practical self-driving cars will be direct descendants of the ones in the DARPA challenge. I’d cut the crazy guys over there some slack.
Davis X. Machina
@Gin & Tonic: Measurable snow has been recorded at the NWS station for Portland in every month except June, July and August.
High school baseball here is something, for fans and players, between a human-rights violation and an elaborate practical joke.
Chyron HR
@Incoherent Dennis SGMM:
But the Chinese are already working on it! We have a M.A.S.K. gap here, people!!
scav
Quite enjoying the on-going push-back K-V Pharamceutical is getting over Makena. FDA, compounding pharmacies, and now the March of Dimes are all slapping them down. They (K-V) do seem pushing the sleazy end of the spectrum. Raising the price of a drug from $20 to $1,500 (now down to $690) for a drug they didn’t really research and develop despite what they claimed. And they’ve got a history on quality issues and yet they try to scare people away from cheaper alternatives by saying they’re not safe. A poster child of Corporate Medicine.
Incoherent Dennis SGMM
@Yutsano:
I agree with you that DARPA comes up with some interesting breakthroughs from time to time: DARPANET was a precursor of the internet. The flying car has, on and off, been a goal of some within the aviation community since the 1930’s. A number of very smart people have thrown time and money at the concept and the best of them finished up with something that was either a lousy car, or a lousy airplane, or both.
Roger Moore
@Gretchen:
Yeah, the Southern California idea of “winter” is still amusing to me. Despite rumors to the contrary, we do get four seasons here: occasional rain, lots of marine layer, infernally hot, and warm with occasional fires.
soonergrunt
Our dog, a two-year old Bichon Frise (my daughter picked her out) just either sits in the sun or in your lap “I get to lick your face and ears now, right? Right?!”
Beautiful weather today, for the first time here in a couple of weeks and finally warm enough to be outside working. Tuned up the lawn mower and mowed the lawn this morning. Building raised garden beds out of 2x12in x8ft boards and a 4x4in x8ft post of western red cedar.
6 boards, two of them cut to 4ft lengths, all the ends trimmed to 45* angle. Cut the post into 1ft lengths x8.
Mount the board ends to each other forming 90* angles, and add a post piece to reinforce the corner.
Secure with coated deck screws or stainless steel screws.
atlliberal
John,
If you chased me around the house with a vacuum I might have some behavioral issues too.
Just sayin’
Incoherent Dennis SGMM
@Roger Moore:
You forgot our occasional Bonus Season, Shake and Bake: Earthquakes + Fires + 100 degree heat.
Dead Ernest
Builder of Cole’s house: “Ancient Indian Burial Ground? Well, a gardner would like that. Let’s call it a ‘feature'”
merrinc
@Chat Noir:
Our local raptor center has an eagle cam too. Two eaglets were born recently but one passed away a couple days ago. A friend of mine works at the center and said fortunately the staff was able to remove the body before the adults ripped it apart and disposed of it in their own unique manner.
Linda Featheringill
John, it isn’t nice to frighten animals [or anyone else].
Joey Maloney
I gotta read Driftglass more often.
TheOtherWA
Sounds like a plan. Sometimes you just have to rest so you can be ready for the next
pet freak outhousehold crisis.Cain
I had an encounter with a stray cat who I guess is untamed. A male that apparently instead of running away starts screaming louder and louder the closer you approach. Until finally, springs at you, claws at you and then runs off.
That happened to me. Had to put some neosporin and wash with warm water. Damn thing was harassing my cats.
Anyways, I wish I had a video, because the whole scenario played like Left4Dead(2) witch scene. I could have added all the effects. :-)
Dead Ernest
@Superluminar:
Damn!
Tremendous admiration for the presentation of your analysis.
kdaug
@Incoherent Dennis SGMM: When are you going to show your Blender stuff? (Mudbox/Max guy myself, with a touch of Maya. Hate ZBrush.)
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@Dead Ernest: Please take this Internet as a token of our esteem.
Martin
When I was a kid our cat used to chase balloons around the house, and especially loved helium ones that would drift around out of reach with a string attached that he could jump at. One day we had a helium balloon with about a 4′ string attached that had lost just enough helium that it was neutrally buoyant. The cat was happily chasing it around while we were in watching TV. The next thing we know the cat is racing around the house completely frantic with this balloon attached to its face – can’t see where it’s going and is crashing into everything in sight, bounces off, and then frantically goes running in a new random direction until it crashes into something and bounces off. The cat had swallowed the string up to the point that the balloon was right up against his mouth. No front claws to pop the thing (which probably would have resulted in him shitting the string out clean) so we had to catch him (seriously not easy as he still had rear claws) and one of us pull the string out with him barfing at it came.
Funniest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen a cat do though. Still liked balloons after, but he wisely stopped trying to eat the string.
Josie
Has anyone else noticed that, although a few have chided John for it, no one is surprised that he decided to chase Rosie with a vacuum cleaner?
Fergus Wooster
@gogol’s wife: This would be the same Alessandra Stanley who panned – with maximum smarminess – the cable drama “Strip Search” for its daring to assert moral equivalence between Chinese interrogations of dissenters and American interrogations of Arabs. The nerve to suggest that the yanks would cross such lines.
The Abu Ghraib story broke the next week.
scav
@Roger Moore: Depends what you grew up with to a degree. Always made me laugh how midwesterners apparently had to be hit on the head with clues along the lines of “Every Leaf Turns Weird Colors!” and “Entire Fucking Landscape Becomes White!” when I could distinguish fall from summer based on the shade of blue and apparent distance of the sky. EarlyMorningFogAndLowCloudsClearingByMidafernoonHighInTheMidToHigh60s was certainly a default forecast ground into the neurons.
gnomedad
@Superluminar:
Mistakes were made.
PurpleGirl
@Josie: Now that you mention it… LOL
MikeJ
@Incoherent Dennis SGMM: A flying car for the general public is far different from flying troop transport.
cathyx
John Cole-
Are you really Albert Brooks?
OzoneR
I thought the Borgias started tomorrow?
Valdivia
Poor little Tunch!
I’m in a country south of the border for a family thing but even that can’t get in th way of 90 degree weather, blue skies and a kick ass union pool that I get to go to the 10 days I’m here for a measily 15$ cause my uncle is a union member. Go unions! :D
Ramiah Ariya
India won the ICC Cricket World Cup. We beat Pakistan in the semi-final Wednesday and Sri Lanka in the final today.
A billion people are going nuts about now..
Gravenstone
@Incoherent Dennis SGMM: Dude, those BOLOs aren’t going to invent themselves.
Yutsano
@Valdivia:
I see you’re going for the air of mystery thing again. :) Of course Argentina is high on my list of places I’d like to take my parents, especially my mom. There and Peru, since she raises Peruvian horses.
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
:D yeah shroud of mystery is me, as they say in OKCupid.
Think more tropical but combined with the unveiling of my grandmother’s headstone and too many psycho family I stay away from and you get an accurate picture. But–since I’m training for a triathlon the Olympic pool is very handy and getting my daily mile of swimming out in the sun instead of inside in an artificially heated pool defenitely makes up for evrything else.
How you? :)
Roger Moore
@scav:
Well, it’s understandable that people from the Great Plains need broad hints to know the seasons. After all, during many of those seasons, the typical weather forecast is “who the fuck knows what’s going to happen?” It’s very different to live in a place where the weather changes unpredictably not just day to day but minute to minute. In my home town in Colorado, I’ve seen it snow on the first day of summer. When the weather is that screwed up, you need some guidance about the season.
WereBear
@Joey Maloney: Everyone should!
And if one is into podcasts, one can’t help but notice he and his female co-host get into lively discussions. And his voice is rather deep and compelling… ahem.
He’s quite the great Photoshop Maven, too. And what about those [sports team]?
Yutsano
@Valdivia: Nursing a sore back I think is FINALLY improving, just taking its own damn sweet time. And contemplating the possibilities when I go temporarily unemployed next week. I just realized another effect of the government shutdown: levies on employers and bank accounts issued by the IRS can be generated via computer (which will keep running) but can only be released manually, and my union has already said no free work period. This could get fun.
burnspbesq
@Davis X. Machina:
Sounds like where I went to college in Upstate New York. The four seasons were Winter, Mud 1, Fourth of July Weekend, and Mud 2.
In SoCal we have Spring, Summer, Fire Season, and Mudslide Season.
WereBear
@Martin: Just a safety note; don’t let mammalian pets play with balloons. Ever.
It’s all fun and games until the cat bites the balloon, it pops, and they manage to aspirate a bit of rubber right over their windpipe.
Happened to a friend of mine; there were screaming crying kids and a shrieking wife and the cat expired while he was trying to find a knife to give him a tracheotomy and not sure if it was going to do any good, anyway.
So there you are.
Joey Maloney
@MikeJ: How do you think the Internet got started? It came from research on how best to maintain military command-and-control communications in the event of nuclear attack.
bemused
John, you don’t have ordinary, mundane accidents/incidents at your home. They are all a little bizarre.
It’s probably all that noxious insanity from wingnut planet coming in that’s the problem. Maybe it’s time to look into some kind of a spiritual cleansing. I’ve been tempted but I don’t personally know anyone who is supposed to be experienced in sage burning rituals or anything like that to banish the negative vibes.
Even if the woo woo stuff worked, it would have to be done on a regular schedule unless internet, tv, news of any type were banned completely. oth, drinking would be easier.
MikeJ
@Joey Maloney: I’m aware of that. In fact, wasn’t even against flying troop transport research. I was replying to the comment that many people have already tried flying cars.
There are lots of things that work in specialized contexts but not in general. Think about how many shitty drivers there are. Then think about them being able to crash into your house from above. Think of how many fender benders happen every day, and then picture every single one of them as flaming multiple fatality accidents.
Cain
@Ramiah Ariya:
There will be some serious partying going on in India!! They won by 6 wickets! I completely slept through it.. and when I woke up I didn’t know it was still going on. I feel like the only indian who didn’t watch it. I suck.
Just for context, India hasn’t won world cup in 28 years or so i’ve read.
MattR
@burnspbesq: The Winnipeg version is “almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction (or mosquito season)”
schrodinger's cat
@Cain: Yes we can and we did!
The formidable batting line-up on paper, held up on the field as well. I was a bit nervous when we lost the first two wickets in quick succession. Who was the man of the match? I missed that one.
schrodinger's cat
@burnspbesq: Did you watch the world cup finals?
Msskwesq
John: chasing Rosie with a vacume? Really? You are just racking up the bad Karma! You better make it up to her and Tunch!
Amir_Khalid
John Cole should be starring in his own reality TV show: Life With Pets. Guaranteed international hit, I tell you.
kdaug
@burnspbesq: In Austin, it’s “a bit chilly, hot, my-goddamned-flip-flops-are-melting-to-the-pavement, hot”
Seriously – in July and August you cannot walk on pavement barefoot.
Incoherent Dennis SGMM
@kdaug:
I’ve been beating on Blender sufficiently to have my stuff just begin to look as I think it should. The process is complicated by the fact that the new version is still in development so about every other week something changes and some of my scripts get broken. Thinking about getting MODO as an intermediate step to Max.
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
Ouch! That sounds like a major headache….
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
And I totally get the back thing. I still have back trouble but the swimming had helped. But for a while my back kept me laid up for weeks. Hope you get better and super mobile soon.
schrodinger's cat
@Amir_Khalid: I came for insights on politics but I stayed for Tunch! John’s pet posts never fail to crack me up.
Ramiah Ariya
@Cain – was stressed out and did not watch it after the initial wickets fell. I looked at the score on hearing screaming outside and it was 170 for 3 in 32 overs or something – which meant they were going to win. I watched the rest of the match dancing with around 50 people in our apartment theater.
Dhoni scored 91; Gambhir, 97 and the partnership was for some 115 runs. They never lost their cool and kept scoring. Yuvraj Singh cried after the match and all were in tears. They carried Sachin around the stadium. Mumbai crowd was amazing.
burnspbesq
@schrodinger’s cat:
I did, and full marks to India. Sri Lanka set a tough target, and I thought India were in deep trouble when they lost Sehwag on the second ball of their innings and Tendulkar ini the seventh over, but they gathered themselves and patiently chipped away. Gambhir, to me, was MOTM. He stopped the bleeding and had a solid and composed 97.
One wonders what difference Muraliatharan’s injury made. He was clearly not himself, and the 11-run over he bowled near the end was disastrous for SL.
Yutsano
@Valdivia: I look at it this way: the more the pain spreads around the more likely the pressure on Boehner and the teatards approaches criticality. Plus I don’t have to hear sob stories about how they can’t feed their kids now because the bank took their money. If you’d just dealt with your tax obligations in the first place none of this would have happened. Oh well, at least I have enough socked away Lexie won’t starve.
Incoherent Dennis SGMM
@MikeJ:
It sure is. The difficulty, IMHO, is that the design doctrines for aircraft and those for lightly armored FWD vehicles are in complete opposition. You want to build your aircraft out of the lightest materials possible and mechanical complexity is a by product of the need for three-axis control. You want your FWD to be robust and simple. With the number of things that the troops need; greater energy self-sufficiency in the field, lighter, more compact gear, standardized battery types for field equipment, it seems to me a bit foolish to chase this particular chimera.
burnspbesq
This is a great read.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=110329/Cricket
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
I hope people see the Repubs for who they are if this happens, but the Village will probably just say they’re serious about the deficit. Idiots! Grrrrr.
Ramiah Ariya
@schrodinger’s cat – Dhoni is man of the match.
Yuvraj Singh is MVP
GregB
8 years of bombing and occupation in Afhganistan are paying off with 2 days of rioting after having been goaded by a lunatic war mongering theocrat in Florida who thinks that burning Korans is smart.
moe99
Last Friday I went to dinner at a friend’s and came home to discover that the two dachshunds had climbed up the big chair and taken out of the Macy’s bag, the sack of chocolate covered easter eggs from Sees, pulled out 5 boxes and devoured the contents of each. Let me say it was a wild and wooly night with more barfing than I ever want to see again in my lifetime. At 2 am, disgusted that Scooter had knocked down the gate in the kitchen, ran to the computer room where he’d promptly thrown up, I locked them in the downstairs bathroom til morning. Needless to say they survived like nothing had ever happened. It took me 2 hours to clean that crap up. Never again.
WereBear
Forget the flying car! I want that machine on The Jetsons that would drag you out of bed and shower you and brush your teeth.
But really, Rosie the Robot Maid is my dream. Screw flying cars!
Mnemosyne
I’m sitting on the couch trying to decide if I want to drive out to Santa Anita for the Food Truck Festival. On the one hand — food trucks! Almost 100 of them!
On the other, I’ve been dealing with this stupid acid reflux problem for over a week, and it’s not quite under control yet, so going someplace with nothing but spicy, fatty food might not be the best idea. Grr.
hamletta
Glad I missed last night’s Open Thread and DC pile-on. Being a native, I’d have been up all night.
Redshift and Don did a fine job defending our town, and I am most grateful to them.
schrodinger's cat
@burnspbesq: Vankhede’s pitch is usually more favorable to batsmen than bowlers. I wish I was at Vankhede, today, I remember watching a test match there elebenty years ago, when Sachin Tendulkar had just burst onto the cricket scene and was still a spring chicken.
burnspbesq
For me, the single key play of the match was the four that Singh hit on the last ball of over 42. Randiv had only given up two runs in over 41, and Perera was one ball away from a maiden over with wicket. If Singh doesn’t connect, momentum is totally with SL going into the stretch run.
Gin & Tonic
@MattR:
I have been in Manitoba in July. Still trying to figure out why sane human beings would have settled down there and said “yeah, this place is OK.”
Davis X. Machina
@Ramiah Ariya: Gotta love the cricket. Sure beats tank v. tank in the Rann of Kutch, or the Punjab.
srv
Hey, for the artists in the artists thread.
If one of you would do a weekly of cartoon of the Adventures of John Cole and his Animals, I would so bookmark that.
SBJules
@Elizabelle:
I believe in Shaka Smart & his players!
schrodinger's cat
I think it is fitting that India won its second world cup in Bombay, the home to many cricketing greats, including Sachin.
I still remember watching the final when India won the world cup the first time. I was at my grandmother’s house and little kid back then, but that final is etched in my memory. Unlike this year Indians were definitely not considered the favorites, then
General Stuck
Go CATS!!
That is all,
Cat
Transocean Cites Safety in Bonuses
Catzmaw
More proof that computers and vacuums are the natural enemy of the cat.
Catzmaw
I meant enemies. There’s no single/plural dissonance here to see. Move along.
Tim, Interrupted
The vacuum aggression tells me all I need to know about the REAL story behind Rosie’s behavioral issues.
I hope she takes a chomp out of your nuts while you’re sleeping, Cole. ;D
Ramiah Ariya
@Davis X. Machina – Pakistani cricketers and cricket are well respected in India. They have generally defated India in one-day matches, but somehow they mess it up every World Cup and end up losing with India in the matches that matter most.
Seared into Indian collective memory is Javed Miandad’s six runs off of Chetan Sharma, in the last ball of a final match with 4 runs to win. However much the Indians win, that humiliation refuses to go away. A lot of people stopped watching cricket for a brief while after that.
schrodinger's cat
@Ramiah Ariya: I remember, Imran Khan had quite a female fan following. Handsome devil was handsome and a great all rounder and captain of Pakistan.
ETA: If you can’t tell already, I had a huge school girl crush on him.
Davis X. Machina
@Ramiah Ariya: It can always get worse. You could follow South Africa.
cmorenc
You want to REALLY freak out a cat? Have your heating/AC ducts professionally cleaned. It involves attaching a giant vacuum cleaner the size of a Volkswagen Beetle to your ducts. Even though they usually attach the vacuum to the ductwork somewhere down in your basement or crawl space (near where the heating/ac units are) rather than in the principal living areas of the house, the VAAAHROOOMMM! noise that’s as loud as a fast-moving freight train through your house, but with the ominous sucking noise of a house vacuum raise to the hundredth power. Cats instinctively dive into the deepest recess of whatever closet is most cluttered with piles of soft stuff they can burrow deeply into and underneath (perhaps your linen closet), and attempt to claw their way through the sheet rock into the walls. They will forcibly resist being lured/dragged out of their panicky hiding place for quite some time after the duct-vacuum people are finished and long gone unless…unless…you start up a house vacuum cleaner in the closet. But be prepared to jump QUICKLY out of the way!
Joseph Nobles
Yes, The Borgias premieres tomorrow. Along with AMC’s The Killing and the third part of HBO’s Mildred Pierce. Starz’ Camelot just popped last night (eh), and Game of Thrones is in the batter’s circle. Nurse Jackie is back, True Blood just announced June 26, Mad Men will be back next year, I’ve still got to see Season 4 of that and Season 3 of Breaking Bad…
And people wonder why I don’t write.
Gina
What were you wearing? I’m guessing Bad Idea Jeans.
Tim, Interrupted
So how is it you are watching the Borgias when the first episode hasn’t yet aired?
Illegal downloading, perhaps?
scav
@Roger Moore: They do have that variance thing down. 50 degree drops in a single day and I’ve seen in managed easily in less than 2 hours. It’s like being a peasant on the Franco-German border — Canadian Air Mass: Mexican Air Mass; Arctic Air Mass: Tropical Air Mass.
donailin
i had an incident today with my b/f’s alpha male GSD, Zuess. He ran out the kitchen door and I chased him for over a mile trying to bring him back home. First it was down the block, then into the five acre farm with horses, but then he ran onto a major road stopping traffic, people pulled over to help me but he would keep on running, marking every bush and tree. At one point, i was in utter despair fearing the worst and fell to my knees in tears. never in my life did my kids give me that kind of stress.
Yes, we finally safely cornered him, but Jesus Christ, i did NOT need this kind of aggravation today
Cain
@schrodinger’s cat:
Apparently, Gavaskar used to live in the same neighborhood as my uncle and grandparents (Hindu Colony) in Bombay. And thank you for using Bombay and not Mumbai.
I’m so sorry I missed it.. everybody from my family watched it.. I was all set to watch it starting in the 3am and I fell asleep and slept the whole thing away.. then I got up and I assumed it was over and it was still going on!
cain
Cain
@schrodinger’s cat:
Those were my prime cricket watching days. Good times.
South of I-10
I just got back from the zoo with three girls, ages 5, 6 and 7. I deserve a medal and a margarita.
John Cole
Comcast On Demand. Episodes 1-2 are one episode, 99 mins, and I started watching it last night. I don’t download illegal stuff.
JPL
@Joseph Nobles: Season four of Mad Men just came in the mail. Wahoo.
schrodinger's cat
@Cain: I l love Hindu Colony, what a great neighborhood! I hope it hasn’t changed much. Bombay is the Mecca for Indian cricket, I think. Home to many cricketing greats from Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar. Of course if you are from Delhi YMMV.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Joseph Nobles: Winter is Coming. Although I’m having issues being jazzed about it because the sun is shining. The Game of Thrones is fall/winter fare.
schrodinger's cat
@Cain:
I have always called it Bombay when I am speaking or writing in English. In Marathi or Gujarati it is Mumbai and in Hindi it is Bambai. I don’t see why that should change, when Indian Wingnuttia (i.e. Shivsena) decided to change the name of the city officially.
Tim, Interrupted
@John Cole:
oops, my bad. I had no idea some of the premium channels make stuff available on demand before it airs.
as for illegal downloading…I’m ok with it. We all have our vices, and on a scale of abominations, I’m pretty much thinking the downloading is fine.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@stuckinred:
What’s the problem with the bearing job? I’m in the middle of Spring Cleaning (think Rocko’s Modern Life) so haven’t been commenting much lately, just reading a bit when taking breaks.
Joseph Nobles
Oh, man, U-Verse on demand has it too! Goodbye, cruel world…
WaterGirl
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Stuckinred is asking for you in John Cole’s latest open thread put up at 6:02. i also posted there to let stuckinred know you were here.
stuckinred
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Yo! Well, I got the pumpkin case of just fine. I found a big ass what looks like a gear tooth in the bottom of the case but I cannot see any broken teeth on the gears. Then it really got fun. I took the pin retainer bolt out (I guess it’s really a pin too) and it’s broken. I put very little pressure on it so I was really surprised it was broken. In addition, it was broken flush with the housing but genius decided to see if it would screw back in if I put the head part of the bolt back in. It did thereby giving me way less room when I tried to use an easy out to get it out. Of course there is little clearance for the drill so I couldn’t really get it square with the hole. I have now broken one of those really expensive Craftsman extractors as I ponder my next move.
stuckinred
Well, not that it matter but apparently this is not a unique problem.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: I see that my matchmaking debut has not been entirely successful.
On the other hand, 30 bucks to solve that problem sounds like a pretty good deal
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: I appreciate it. He’ll check back when he has time.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: My cat has more mechanical abilities than I do, but i was stunned by the way he walked you through this job last week (or whenever it was). His description was so calm and patient and methodical and impressive. Wow.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: Gears head are good people.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@stuckinred:
I hate using screw extractors because they are so brittle that they usually break off, leaving you with a bigger headache.
Just so I clearly understand you, the head came off of the pin retainer bolt when you went to remove it and then you screwed the remaining piece of bolt further in with it?
One trick I used once in a similar situation was to clean the broken bolt head (remove oils) and carefully JB Weld a piece of rod to it, letting it cure for day. The bolt was easy to turn but small and broken off just below the surface. I put a bit of Vaseline around the top threads to keep the JB Weld off of it and sure enough, I was able to unscrew the remaining bolt the next day. One guy I worked with used an arc welder to do this trick. He cleaned the bolt end up, hooked up the welder, touched the rod to the head and cut the power to the welder. The damned thing came right out.
You need to dislodge the extractor tip with a good cold chisel and hammer (wear protective goggles!!) to resume attempts at removal. Don’t bother trying to drill it out, you’ll just end up with a bigger mess. Try to drive the extractor piece in the direction to remove it from the bolt. It usually doesn’t take much to dislodge it, you just have to hit it at a good angle (read: lucky hit).
More importantly, that chunk of gear material needs to be identified! You can inspect the ring and pinion gears as it now sits. Focus on the ends of the gear teeth, that’s where they usually chip off. If nothing is found then you can expect that the tooth piece is from the spider/sidegear area. If it’s there then it’s an easy and cheaper fix. If it’s off of the ring/pinion gears then you need a new gearset.
Let me think on this a bit more to see if I can remember any other creative ideas for removing broken bolts. Also, sorry so late in responding as I got wrapped up in an experiment on a custom motorcycle ignition I am working on (it’s alive!).
Side projects… At least I have all of the carpets cleaned! Windows are next.
stuckinred
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Thanks, I’m watching hoops and thinking about taking it slow with this. The head did break off, I didn’t even realize at first since I put so little force on it. When I looked at that site for the extractor kit it said 805 of them break so even if that’s not accurate I feel better that I didn’t do it through negligence. I got the extractor tip out with channel locks. I did tap the big pin so I imagine that will not help in trying to get the bolt out. It doesn’t seem to me that there is much thread on the existing pin or it wouldn’t have gone back in so easily when I screwed the head back in. What really irks me is that JB weld was my first thought! Let me make sure what you are suggesting, take the bolt head that I broke off and, after cleaning and coating the threads in the casing with vaseline, apply JB weld to the tip of the bolt and screw it back in to contact the pin left in?
The broken piece is not from any of the gears that are visible on rotation so maybe I got lucky there.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@stuckinred: “Let me make sure what you are suggesting, take the bolt head that I broke off and, after cleaning and coating the threads in the casing with vaseline, apply JB weld to the tip of the bolt and screw it back in to contact the pin left in?”
Bingo! Just use enough JB Weld to connect the two surfaces (less is better) and tighten it (with fingers). Don’t ovetighten it or you will force the compound into the thread spaces, possibly welding it in place! Since you will be cutting off air to the compound, if you have a small heater then place it near the bolt to help the compound catalyze and set.
Good news that it’s not looking like the ring or pinion gears that are damaged! That would be a pain in the ass since rebuilding a Salisbury-type differential is just that.
Let the JB Weld set up for two days before attempting removal. Good luck!! :)
stuckinred
@Odie Hugh Manatee: My mudder thanks you, my fadder thanks you and I thanks you!
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@srv:
You know who that’s a job for, right? Hyperbole and a Half.
stuckinred
Upon review the broken gear is from the pinion.