@ExtraMedium I was one of those people, thanks. If it weren’t for you and my electronics that set themselves, I might have been early to something Monday.

@djslack @ExtraMedium
I woke up Sunday morning at 0106 according to my smartwatch. My first thought was “CRAP” has the time rolled back yet or not?

@ybmuG Unfortunately, I would NOT have all that candy staring me in the face all November. Not enough willpower for that, for which I blame @jaybird.

@ybmuG Dress up in a post halloween hangover costume. You go door to door to give it away. Problem solved. (grin).

@ybmuG a suggestion for your leftovers… the cereal makes them healthier
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a20268441/reeses-stuffed-rice-krispies-treats-recipe/

@jaybird @ThunderChicken @ybmuG I keep mine (dark chocolate minis) in the fridge, tucked behind some condiment jars - the cold seems to quiet them down a bit but I can still hear them muttering when I quickly open the door.
When we had our last power shutoff, you could hear the muffled “I’m melting!” screams from inside.

@jaybird @ThunderChicken yeah, we’ll see how long it’s around…

@Kidsandliz I’m going to go with…no

@j2 that’s just wrong I, but in a strangely good way… I’ll let you know if we do that

@jaybird @stolicat @ThunderChicken right?! I knew it wasn’t just me! Thanks for the fridge tip. Maybe I’ll put them in the freezer on the landing going down to the basement. Evil little nuggets.

I think it’s the chocolate. I’ve heard it before from the stuff we got at Aldi, though with a distinct German accent.

@jaybird @stolicat @ThunderChicken @ybmuG
8 of the 9 voices in my head say, “Eat the chocolate…”

@2many2no @jaybird @stolicat @ybmuG What does the ninth one say?

@2many2no @jaybird @stolicat @ThunderChicken @ybmuG
The ninth one says “That’s not chocolate.”

@jaybird @mike808 @stolicat @ThunderChicken @ybmuG
I dunno, I’m not psychic.
Just because I hear the voices doesn’t mean I always understand them.

@2many2no @jaybird @stolicat @ThunderChicken “eat broccoli”

Goat fight

@ThunderChicken @jaybird can have it

@Kidsandliz Time for one of these setups.

@narfcake They have traps although not in a box like that. I’ll send the url for the video to them. Good ideas there. I emptied enough mouse traps as a kid (my parents made that my job as the oldest) that I really, really don’t want to be the one to empty these with rats in there. Or even see them.

The feral cats hunt them outside. Of course with all the holes in the walls of the building outside = inside for the most part. It’s a big warehouse in falling down condition.

Theoretically sometimes this week they are putting strobe lights behind the dryers which is supposed to drive them at least away from all the laundry (I had to wash a laundry basket full of stuff the rats had pee’d and pooped on the other day - typically about that much every couple of days). I suspect it will drive the dogs near there crazy at night since the lights flashing not be confined to just behind the dryers. But there is no telling the director anything so I just kept my mouth shut. Hopefully someone will check out how the dogs are responding to the lights. Fortunately the area is industrial so no houses nearby to hear barking all night.

@Kidsandliz Once they see what’s going on, rats won’t GAF about the lights.

Another option is the plank style traps.

@narfcake Thanks although it makes me sad to drown them. I’ll pass this one on too.

@Kidsandliz Without the water, it’s a live catch. The key is that it’s a large enough barrel; 5 gallon buckets are too shallow and rats can jump out.

@narfcake Yeah I saw the tote example - I will make sure she knows. As long as I don’t have to know or deal with what goes on to get rid of them that will make me happier. I have a lot of trouble with the killing of animals. And they will panic when drowning. They may be pests but they don’t deserve to die suffering or in agony.

@narfcake So they were very interested in the method used in the first video. They said drowning them was too cruel and transporting them the distance they’d need to transport them wasn’t practical. Because 3 people who work there doing dogs just quit they don’t have time until they replace those folks to build that. Everyone, including the director and assistant director, is doing dogs at the moment.

@Kidsandliz @narfcake agree. Rat or no rat, I can’t do an inhumane solution either. We have lots of rats around here (near Baltimore).

@Kidsandliz @narfcake ok, on the time consuming transport issue… Hear me out…

RATAPULT

@readnj The last election goat ignored all the political blames, so I suggest @jaybird to do the same too.

(Technically, he ignored all the blames, actually. )

@narfcake @readnj I may well ignore everything. If I could find a way to poke fun at everyone without insulting/hurting/fanning a firestorm/etc., I would. Unfortunately, I don’t see how that will be possible.

Blame me for the election outcomes all you want, unfortunately I may just have to eat them without regurgitating.

If I could find a way to poke fun at everyone …

@jaybird @readnj The last few times Woot offered some political shirts, I posted cat pics to counter the bickering.

/image democat or republicat

@narfcake @readnj what are ‘cals’ though?

@jaybird @readnj Californias?

@jaybird I think if someone moved into my house and started throwing away my stuff, I’d be a little miffed, to say the least.

@jaybird wwhhhaaaa… Well, I could come back temporarily so some poor sole can get a surprise.

But what kind of commitment are we talking about? Every day, a couple of times a week? Puppy is a huge time drain, walks multiple times a day, training, etc. (It will be worth it, it will be worth it…lol)

Also, I really need someone to summarize the rules you guys have. I can’t remember then I feel bad because, well I just play through

@RiotDemon she has the support of my wife…you know, the boss? anyway, it’s mostly stuff i’m ok with, just been too procrastinatey to do anything about it myself.

@tinamarie1974 honestly, we’d (I’d) like to get the team score up for a couple cycles just to see if we can crack 100. the ‘rules’ we have pertain only to friendly matches and though we’d love additional players, that wouldn’t be required for this experiment.

@jaybird I don’t mind following the rules, I just never remember them. And I am a horrible golfer, apparently lol

@PocketBrain first time for everything

@jaybird Believe you me, I’m more surprised than you are.

@PocketBrain I had the opposite problem. Good thing yesterday was National Half Price Candy Day.

@PocketBrain @sammydog01
yeah, when my kids were young they thought Feb 15th was Valentine’s…

@lisaviolet
Wow. I thought my plight was bad. Mine bricked when Epson decided to update the firmware and make 3rd party ink cartridges non-compatible (My wife clicked the ‘update now’ option when she got a notice about new firmware when she was using my (color) printer across the house network…). Trying to find the correct process to roll back the firmware at this time.
NOT HAPPY with Epson at this time.
Hopefully I can unblame @jaybird soon…

@chienfou I had contacted a company (Marruttusa), one of the places I bought the cleaner from, this past weekend. I sent photos of the problem, asked if they thought it was a printhead problem. Their response (which I got yesterday) was to follow all seven of their cleaning videos (seven steps to fixing the kind of problem I’m having). I had only done two.

My husband says I should do it, nothing to lose at this point.

I hope you can get your problem resolved. It’s easy to rollback drivers and software, but firmware? Do you have the firmware you need to roll back to? I see a fair amount of “how to” pages, but where do you find the right firmware?

My machine is too old for automatic updates, I guess that’s a plus. lol I use a continuous ink system so I’d be screwed.

Update: have you seen this link? There are firmwares from 2016 and 2017 at the bottom.

1:

@lisaviolet

Update: have you seen this link? There are firmwares from 2016 and 2017 at the bottom.

yep… unfortunately mine is one of the models not available. (XP-810) I have a lead on some other software and may end up using the Resetter.me service.
thanks anyway…

@chienfou @lisaviolet
The epson XP-810 has a copy here that matches the version number from Lisa’s link. NX12F8

https://us.driverscollection.com/_486292863218372a141123ff5f9/Download-Epson-XP-810-Firmware-Update-Recovery-Mode-version-NX12F8-for-Windows-10-10-64-bit-8.1-(32-64-bit)-8-(32-64-bit)-7-(32-64-bit)-XP-(32-64-bit)-Vista-(32-64-bit)-free

I cannot personally recommend this site but looks like the kind of place I would consider using for lost drivers/firmware when fixing something like this as a favor when I can’t find it anywhere else. Haven’t had to dig up something like that in a while so use your own judgement. Download seems fine though.

@lisaviolet @unksol
Thanks
I am planning to try to resolve this issue in the next couple of days. I’ll let you know how it goes.

@lisaviolet @unksol
As promised here is the current status report;

OMG it worked!

thanks to you both for your assistance in this fiasco. I had found the instructions, but was unable to find the necessary file… because I was too dense to search using the file name of the file that was “unavailable”. I had been searching for XP810 firmware… D’ohhh!
I am once again printing, and have disabled the update feature on my computer and removed the updater from my wife’s laptop…

@chienfou @unksol Yay!

My used printer got here last week and before I do the switch out, I’m going to pull the continuous ink cartridges out and try just regular cartridges in my printer.

That will assure me that the problem is the print head and not the ink.

Not looking forward to it.

@lisaviolet
Hopefully you will be as lucky as I was!

@chienfou Done. It’s not the ink. Boo.

I ordered another set of waste ink tanks last week. Hopefully it will be here soon and we can get them switched out.

@chienfou Well, unpacked the “new” machine and set it up on the laptop.

It took a while to get the software installed (I blame my virus software, stupid nanny).

Once the utility looked the way it should, nothing printed out, my anxiety level rose, just a little bit (ha…$500 for something that’s not gonna work!). I tried the head cleaning, but the power and paper feed lights started blinking, checked online, it was a paper jam (what? huh?).

After a bunch of turning it off and turning it on, I was able to do a head cleaning, and finally got a picture to print out.

It was perfect! So, now, just waiting on the new waste ink tanks to get here and we’ll let the sawing begin (case needs to be modified, keeping the continuous ink system, the cost of ink for this thing is nuts).

@lisaviolet
Glad you got your printer working. I have used CISS tanks on some of my old printers, but this time I opted to just use 3rd party cartridges since I can get a set of cartridges essentially free by recycling the empties at Office Depot (full set of cartridges is about $10, can get $2 per each of the 5 cartridges in credit at OD to recycle the empties…) I don’t print as much as I used to so I’ve been pretty happy with this arrangement.
(of course, that being said, I just printed a sheet of labels for the 24 jars of Raspberry jam I just made…)

@chienfou @lisaviolet step one
/youtube have you tried turning it off and on again

@unksol
Ha! That was my first move (… well, after the swearing…)

@chienfou lol those printers seem insanely expensive. If I were in business as computers repair I’d probably require a waiver even though 90% of the time it would be fine.

At the same time when you’re dealing with something like that… Even when the company stops hosting it. Someone cares enough to extract and upload it. Usually.

Constant thing in the early 2000s.

Some companies are better now. And most tools let you backup so someone somewhere has it. Just maybe not the person who immediately clicked upgrade

@chienfou @unksol I had a problem with a new something about ten years ago. I called support and the guy tells me to power it down.

Power it down? WTF? This unit didn’t have a power button. I asked him to clarify and he said “unplug it”. So, why didn’t he say that in the first place?

AFAIC, you need a power button to “power it down”.

Sheesh…

@RiotDemon isn’t it? I was driving through the rain on the way home last night. I-4 and the turnpike were messes.

@ELUNO IIRC, if you haven’t bought anything since (aka used any of the benefits) the last renewal, you’ll be refunded.

@ELUNO well, in three weeks you’ll blame me for cancelling your vmp prematurely so 2(blame) = Unblame where blame is cast on both sides of the same issue. Blame cancellation is in effect.

@ybmuG did it actually pronounce “Illegal” properly or did it use a short ‘e’ sound?

@chienfou it was actually pronounced correctly, though in that typical, fast way.

@ybmuG
good algorithm…

@CaptAmehrican why would you ruin a perfect bacon sandwich with cheese and burgers? This is the question you really need to be asking yourself.

@CaptAmehrican @jaybird Just what need; an advice-giving goat.

@CaptAmehrican @ThunderChicken You’re welcome

@tinamarie1974 we voted last week . We had no wait.

@jaybird @tinamarie1974 One hour and 53 minutes here. And around half had no masks on and no social distancing. Line wrapped around the building. I was lucky though. The news said another local voting area had a line a mile long.

@tinamarie1974 I got my pick of parking spaces and no line whatsoever. The only people there were election officials. Thank you early voters!

@sammydog01 swh-eet!

@lisaviolet I think you were looking at this with the wrong perspective. Phat mustaches are all the rage. A simple spelling and punctuation change fixes your problem.

@lisaviolet Thanks for the belly laugh!!!

@Kyeh @lisaviolet pun intended?

@jbartus @lisaviolet For sure!

@Kidsandliz You haven’t seen your dog eating all the deer poop in the yard, have you?

@mike808 I take it you have dogs who do that?

@Kidsandliz No, but I have a fenced in yard and a friend with a dog who lives in an apartment wanted to let his dog (a chocolate Labrador) play in my yard, and I agreed because it would keep the deer out of it. When he returned, the dog gleefully began to slobber and lick the shit out of him, like Labs do.

I forgot to mention to my friend what his dog had been doing all afternoon. Oops. My bad.

@mike808 You are one sick cookie

@Kidsandliz @mike808 Don’t cats do something similarly “disgusting” too?

@Kidsandliz or a more current reference. Saw this in Mexico years ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_pointy_boots

@tinamarie1974 Actually these, depending on what you make the point out of, could be used as a kicking (or other) weapon. I wonder what TSA would think.

@RiotDemon Aldi’s you say. Hmmm. 4,270 feet away. On the list for making groceries tomorrow.

@RiotDemon
Went to Aldi’s for chips. Came home with a Hot Wheels advent calendar. And chips.

This is why I don’t go to Aldi’s.

@sammydog01 did you get the same chips as me? Did you like them? They taste like another chip but I can’t place the flavor exactly…

I saw the hot wheels. It looked cute.

@RiotDemon Same chips but I haven’t opened them yet. I thought I bought 3 but I only have 2. I wonder where the third one went? I probably dropped is somewhere.

@RiotDemon They’re a little too spicy for me. I think they had other flavors. I might buy some different ones when I return my advent calendar.

@sammydog01 spicy? Not hot but too flavorful? I didn’t think they were hot.

Why are you returning your calendar?

@RiotDemon I thought they were hot. Maybe it was something else.

I’m thinking about using my Funko Harry Potter calendar instead. Or my other Funko Harry Potter one. Or my Lego Harry Potter one. Or my lego Friends one. Or my farm animal one. I need to stop buying advent calendars.

@RiotDemon Crap I really want this one.

@sammydog01 omg, that gremlins one is awesome!! You just need to start opening 5 different calendars a day, and then maybe a calendar the rest of the months to use up whatever other ones you have.

HIKING! VIKINGS! STRIKE KING [BRAND FISHING LURES]! AWESOME!

@RiotDemon I’m doing dinosaurs this month.

@sammydog01 whaaaaaaaat, and you haven’t shared them with us yet??

@RiotDemon saw your post this morning. Just got back from Aldi’s with a bag of these and a bag of thd taquitos flavor. Husband opened the taquito flavor first. Pretty good but rather salty - of course I think that all Clancy’s products seem a little salty (it is the secret ingredient). Thanks for the heads up!

@j2 woooo, potato chips!

@RiotDemon Clancy chips are only okay. Others in my fam tryed a few flavors and never finished them. So, personally I would avoid that brand. If your going to a grocery that only sells name brands on a limited basis only stick to products that others have already raved about. Farm products are always a buy; support local farmers. Avoid most snacks; there just yucky to name brands. Exception unless your already buying cereal buy the bag else where than you may enjoy them. Eye personally only buy store brands eye trust; only sold in the vesenity of its competitor name brand. No, name brand to compare its ingredients to whip out your nifty dift phone and search internet. Eye bought some Clancys guacamole chips and inside had many thick pieces that were layered in seasonings like a rodent got mixed in. That was discovered 3/4th into the bag though. Eye was raised if the frosted flakes has small ants in it; drown them with milk and eat the cereal its extra protein. Just cause eye was raised that way doesn’t mean I turned out that way. I waste or throw out lots especially if its only a few bucks. If its worth talking about most stores will actually honor the store brands they carry and if taken back; you should receive store credit if nothing else.

Its hit and miss with Clancy mostly a skip for me. To each their own though.

@RiotDemon Didn’t see the 7-layer dip chips. My Aldi’s instead had the “Turkey & Stuffing” flavor. Quite tasty and just in time for Thanksgiving.
/image Clancy’s Turkey & Stuffing potato chips

@CaptAmehrican is there a reason for a shortage of eggs again?

@CaptAmehrican @RiotDemon kroger has been stocked with everything every time I’ve been in. Pasta was even .50 a pound and the small local store has everything too. I would guess a one off?

@CaptAmehrican @RiotDemon they may be using them to make serum???

@Kidsandliz
Oh no!
I’m sorry to hear that!!
Hopefully she’ll have a smooth recovery.

@punkynpye Thank you. I hope so too. It will take 7-10 days to see how bad a case she has as she tested pos on Monday after testing neg Friday (was tested after the staff member’s test came back pos) so it was caught very early in the game. She has several preexisting conditions that won’t help and her age won’t help.

Damn staff member came to work not felling well but worked the entire day and apparently didn’t feel well the previous day either. Seriously??? She needs fired over doing that based on where she worked. They tested her at work on Friday near the end of the day (fast test) so it is likely more people will test pos based on how long it can take between exposure and coming down with it. Because they are short staffed she had been in and out of a number of residents’ rooms in the days prior to when she tested pos. I hope to heaven the numbers stop at 3.

@Kidsandliz @punkynpye Hope she does ok

@kerryzero @punkynpye Thanks. So far not all that sick. But it is early yet. She only tested pos Monday and was neg Friday. Fingers crossed she (and the other two who are pos from that employee) will be one of the lucky ones.

My niece also has let us know that she and her entire family but one have covid (so far anyway apparently Monday only 2/5 were sick and now - Wednesday - 4/5 are sick). They were exposed from someone, without symptoms yet (has them now), came over for a cookout and none of them wore masks. They are all young so hopefully they will all be OK. The high schooler is annoyed that she still had to do virtual school even though she has some symptoms LOL.

@Kidsandliz @punkynpye for everybody

@kerryzero @punkynpye Thanks. I have a pit in my stomach over this. Especially since there is no way I can see her since we can’t go in.

@kerryzero @Kidsandliz @punkynpye sorry. Sending positive vibes for a speedy recovery

@Kidsandliz @punkynpye Are you fucking kidding me. Working there they aren’t required to wear mask?? What the fuck? Again fuck!! Eye wear a mask everywhere except for my own residence. Also, check temperatures of those close who visit. Yes, eye voted for the masked guy.

@punkynpye @whomeyesu My niece doesn’t work where my mom lives; mom has it independently of my nieces’s family (they haven’t been around each other either). My niece’s family either had a cook out at their house with a friend who came over or went to one at the friend’s house - not sure which but in any case it was in someone’s backyard - and no one wore a mask. They are not members of the “covid is a hoax” cult either so I no idea why they were so dumb fuck stupid at the cook out. I have seen photos of my niece and family with masks on in public too.

The staff are required to wear either a disposable mask or a cloth one. And of course we all know how so many people can wear those wrong - I see that all the time even at the clinics I go to for myself at the university medical center. At one visit recently I saw some medical staff not wear one in a staff work room that had no door and only pull them back up in the hall. They were maybe 12’ from me without wearing one. The front desk staff I have seen some of them not even covering their nose, barely covering their nose or basically having one next to useless because it was well away from their skin due to a lot of facial hair. I refused vitals a couple of weeks ago because the person doing that had a construction one on with an exhale valve (I also reported that to infection control)… Medical masks and associated PPE are only used in the medical unit of that complex.

Incidentally I saw a decent study that found that temp taking misses over half the pos cases for a week or more after they test pos (and of course all the asymptomatic cases) so that isn’t all that useful to screen people early in the game nor some people at all. The O2 saturation checking misses even more pos cases since many aren’t sick to that level. The “fast test” that is cheap and easy to do (the fed gov provided money for nursing homes and assisted living to buy those machines and test supplies - there is one where mom is using that money to buy one) also has a huge problem with false pos and false neg test results. That is a enough of a serious problem that Nevada has banned the use of them anywhere where accuracy really matters and the FDA has put out a warning.

Mom’s fast test was neg a week ago Friday, pos this last Monday afternoon and the PCR test (I think it is called that - one of the much more accurate “slow tests”) came back pos yesterday afternoon (it was sent out either very late Monday or drawn and sent out on Tuesday).

@Kidsandliz Please update. We worry .

@OldCatLady Yesterday she had a temperature of 101 and they told her it was giving her heart problems. They added some pill that she has no idea what it is. I haven’t heard today yet. She is not picking up the phone (I call at a regular time on Sunday but people have been calling her a lot) and I am presuming she is on it. At least I hope so since no one has told me that she is no longer at the assisted living’s covid unit and is at the hospital instead. So I have to presume she is still at the assisted living unit. Makes me worry though.

@OldCatLady Thanks for asking.

I just got off the video phone with her. My sister bought a ViewClix thing (pretty clever machine for use by the no tech skills mother) and had them put it in her room. It uses the internet and you can make video calls to it via a computer or a phone. Nice substitute for facetime as the person using the unit at her end doesn’t need to do anything. Calling in we just show up.

She is sick (as in normal flu level sick) but not super covid sick so far. She is 6 days into this. Hopefully this is an indication that she will just have a “normal” case and not a really nasty one.

Luckily a nurse came in the room while I was on the video with her, gave me a medical update (mom says she isn’t sick - umm ok so what then accounts for your symptoms and how tired you are…) and said that there are no hospital beds so they can’t send anyone to the hospital even if they need to go; they have to stay on the covid wing at assisted living. So I have my fingers crossed she doesn’t need intensive care because there are no beds. I’d guess if they are deciding who gets an open bed and more than one person needed it they’d pick someone much younger than my mom.

She has somewhat confused thinking (part of that is the isolation she has lived in since March and part is covid related). She kept forgetting I was not in her room (she offered me some of her dinner that she didn’t want LOL), that one of my cats was in there (I had shown her my cats and my apt as she has never been to this apt) and I had to keep reminding her I was 1000 miles away.

But regardless of all of that, so far we are very lucky her case isn’t severe. Yet anyway. I do realize that often things get a lot worse 7-14 days out; that on average people often don’t get diagnosed until 5 days after they have symptoms. As she got diagnosed immediately due to exposure to someone she is even earlier in the game than those statistics are based on. But at least so far things are more or less OK relatively speaking.

PS Wear your masks folks and socially distance! I live in a different state than my mom and starting about 5 or so days ago there are no ICU beds in my ENTIRE STATE! You do not want to get this (or have other needs for the hospital) and find, like is the case where my mom lives, no hospital beds at all and even worse no ICU beds if you were to really need one.

@RiotDemon I’m in line at GameStop trying to pick up the nightmare before Christmas advent calendar I bought last night and it’s Xbox release day, shit.

@sammydog01

/Me goes to look

Damnit. Funko.

Have fun waiting for your calendar!

@RiotDemon But they’re cute! And that was 40 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

Here are my dinosaurs:

@RiotDemon It’s by Schelich. They make amazing plastic models. And they put some in every calendar. The remaining days are filled with things like tiny sticker sheets and bottoms of plants. The reviews are full of crying children and parents running out to buy more figures.

I got my daughter a farm calendar once. First day- cow! Second day, piece of fence. Third day, bucket. Fourth day, piece of fence. Fifth day, tiny apple.

Fortunately she was old enough that it became a joke every time she opened some fencing. And there were more farm animals to come.

@sammydog01 that’s like the calendars Ashens and Nerdcubed opens. I can’t wait to see what they picked this year.

I guess this is why the chocolate ones are great.

/youtube ooh a piece of candy

@RiotDemon By the way I have never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas. Which seems wrong. But I had a credit at Best Buy so I’ll own a DVD soon. WOO!

@sammydog01 omg. You and the staffer that hasn’t seen it need to pick a day and watch it and we can all discuss during/afterwards.

@RiotDemon @sammydog01 I’ve never seen it either!

@sammydog01 @tinamarie1974

/Me goes to cry in the corner.

@RiotDemon @sammydog01 @tinamarie1974 Me too neither.

@OldCatLady @RiotDemon @sammydog01 @tinamarie1974 we were not allowed to see it when dad bought it on VHS. Idk if that has any thing to do with it i my head but I still am a little creeped out by it. Even though I’ve seen it since

/youtube kidnap the sandy claws tie him in a bag

@OldCatLady @sammydog01 @tinamarie1974 @unksol seriously need to have a watching party before Christmas.

@RiotDemon @sammydog01 @tinamarie1974 @unksol Okay, when?

@OldCatLady @RiotDemon @tinamarie1974 @unksol I’m picking up my dvd after lunch. This weekend sometime?

@OldCatLady @sammydog01 @tinamarie1974 @unksol need to invite @dwightschrute as well.

@dwightschrute @OldCatLady @RiotDemon @sammydog01 @tinamarie1974 @unksol I have never seen it either. Always embarrassed to admit that among fellow nerds.

@dwightschrute @kerryzero @OldCatLady @sammydog01 @tinamarie1974 @unksol add another one to the list!!

@dwightschrute @kerryzero @OldCatLady @RiotDemon @sammydog01 @unksol so Torrid just released their winter disney collection and there us a BUNCH of nightmare b4 Christmas stuff. Clothes, undies, shoes. All cute!

@tinamarie1974 OOOH thank you for the heads up!

@OldCatLady @RiotDemon @tinamarie1974 @unksol I’m watching RIGHT NOW!

@OldCatLady @sammydog01 @tinamarie1974 @unksol
Yay!!!

/image gif zero dog house 2

@sammydog01 $2??? What a steal!

@RiotDemon I had a $5 reward thing.

@sammydog01 scones!

@kerryzero Good call! I wonder if scones are hard to make.

@kerryzero @sammydog01 super easy to make!

@jaybird @RiotDemon I see a Nightmare Before Christmas advent calendar there on the bottom shelf that doesn’t have funko Pops in it.

I bet those Garbage Pail Kids ones go on clearance in December.

@jaybird @sammydog01 $50 for garbage pail kids in 2020? It seems surprising. Guess they are pulling the nostalgia heartstrings pretty hard.

I looked up the nightmare calendar. It’s $40 for a pop up Christmas tree that you hang 25 paper ornaments on that look like you just printed out some clip art. I was so disappointed.

I ended up finding out that the Bradford Exchange is doing a nightmare village. It’s $70 for each house though… Ouch. Or at least the first one is. I can’t find out how many packages there are or any pricing beyond the first one.

/image Bradford exchange nightmare before christmas village

@er1c

@er1c I don’t think that’s how this works lol

@sammydog01 ew, orange chocolate.

How did you like the other one??

@sammydog01 daim that looks good

@RiotDemon It’s really good.

@sammydog01 yay!

@RiotDemon @sammydog01

ew, orange chocolate

actually that’s really good… especially these:

@sammydog01 Sorry, just no. Chocolate and orange?

Nope.

@chienfou @RiotDemon @sammydog01 especially the dark chocolate ones

@chienfou @RiotDemon @sammydog01 @ybmuG Send those to me, get them out of your sight. I’ll give them a good home.

@OldCatLady
/giphy big grin

@lisaviolet
so sorry to hear that!

@lisaviolet I am so sorry

/giphy ghost hug

@lisaviolet
So sorry…

@lisaviolet It’s just so hard when our beloved kitties reach the point where the only kind thing is to say goodbye. And you have lost so many recently. I am so sorry you are having to do this yet again.

@Kidsandliz I whispered in her ear, while we were waiting for the sedation to hit, to please not send anymore kitties…

She was one of those cats with a huge personality, you know the kind. You knew she was there, even though she was just a tiny thing.

@lisaviolet You know that isn’t going to happen. There is a beacon at your house that calls cats. This end of their life though is so hard. I thought I was going to have to put my 19.5 year old down a couple of weeks ago but then with all the crap the vet gave me to give her she has started to feel better. She solicits a lot more direct attention from me than she used to. She is not a lap cat, rather a sit next to you cat. She fell asleep in my lap the other day and actually comes to solicit attention much more than she used to. Of course instead of being her normal 12 pounds she is about 6 and has other old age issues that involve the dirt box on occasion…

@tinamarie1974 Well good. That has to be a relief. Good thing dogs have been bred to want to please.

@tinamarie1974 You might get a kick out of this story

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/science-proves-a-harsh-truth-about-very-good-dogs

That would imply (only a little stretch) that your dog deciding to learn to be trained so that it is easier to manipulate you

@Kidsandliz oh I am sure this is the case. He is so smart, there is no doubt he tries to manipulate me every moment of the day! We still have the daily “war of wills”, but yesterday was only twice and far less energetic than usual.

@tinamarie1974 Sounds like pre-schoolers when they finally understand that they can’t rule the world using the tantrum approach.

Sounds like your dog is starting to learn you mean what you “say” and he’s going to have to take a different approach. With kids wheedling usually comes next. I wonder if you will get the dog equivalent.

@Kidsandliz I constantly compare him to a toddler.

@tinamarie1974 And that is why you have no human babies. Right?

After I bottle fed a 10 day old kitten every 2-3 hours between written and oral comps I reminded myself this is why I didn’t want to adopt an infant. (grin)

@Kidsandliz never wanted to have kids. Btw, he was back to his antics today…darn! But there is still hope

@tinamarie1974 Actually I never wanted kids either until I was in my late 30’s. And I sure didn’t want an infant. As cute as they are I am always glad to be able to give them back!

@CaptAmehrican I am thrilled we now have two vaccines that look positive. I am also terrified given how quickly they have been developed/tested.

I am really torn. Maybe it bothers me more than it should?

@tinamarie1974 I did the moderna trial. We are still blinded but I had a reaction so I think got the vaccine. I had a heavy sore arm for about 10 hrs and some extra tired after both shots.
Personally if that is the side effects and i avoid covid this is so very very worth it. Truly all the extra covid nose swaabs and blood draws were worse.

@CaptAmehrican Cool you got to be a trial and likely got the actual vaccination. I am envious! I applied locally for the trial starting soon, but I’ll probably be rejected as I won’t have as much exposure as the maskless thousands around here. That application asked about going to bars, fitness clubs, mask use, etc.

@tinamarie1974 The, if you want to look at it this way, plus side of the rise in covid cases is that the exposure rate of people is higher so it is possible to rest the vaccination faster. What is nice about the new one is that it just needs regular refrigeration and doesn’t need diluted to be used (of course more can be shipped if you have to later dilute - but that adds the possibility of someone making a mistake). The new one where preliminary results were just announced had 30,000 in the trial.

@unksol Has he decided you are dirty yet and decided to give you a sandpaper bath?

@Kidsandliz he’s more of a massage/acupuncturist

@Kidsandliz @unksol ooohhhhhh if I could only teach puppy those skills!!

@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 you say that till you wake up with a bunch of little holes in your arm

@Kidsandliz @unksol uuummmmmm, so maybe sans acupuncture and massage only?

/giphy dog massage

@tinamarie1974 @unksol trim their nails? I have one that does that and I finally trained her to do that mostly on blankets and pillows due to me not being all that good about keeping her claws clipped. I think just about every shirt I own has small cat claw holes in them due to kneading and sharp claws.

@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 I relocate his paws when he starts going if it hurts and I’m awake. and yes I trim his claws he does not care at ALL. But somehow he always sharpens one too a needle point. It’s a whole thing.

“Ok while your in my lap you were poking the hell out of me last night… Wtf you did that with one claw? Wait how did it even get that sharp? Who are you planning to shank?”

Oh… Right… Me…
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/cat_kill

@Kidsandliz @unksol glad I am not the only one that has conversations with their pet. Yup that is what I got out of your blurb lol

@tinamarie1974 eh you got a puppy. Something something dog terrorist.

@CaptAmehrican I bought a bunch of premade entrees and just been throwing a potato in the oven to bake. Great for days when I’m not wanting to cook.

@CaptAmehrican @RiotDemon Or put the potato in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Even faster.

@Kidsandliz I’m sorry for your whole family.

@Kidsandliz I am so sorry

@Kidsandliz sorry for your loss.

@Kidsandliz I’m really sorry for your losses; I hope that your mother recovers soon and that
you and the rest of your family get better and stay well.

@Kyeh @riotdemon @tinamarie1974 @mike808 Thank you all. I woke up just now to find 3 cats cuddled against me. Bless my cats. I know many other families are going through this too but it doesn’t make it any easier. I hope none of you have to experience this. No funeral. No way to be with family when they need you and you need them. All of this just fucking sucks.

More bad news. My aunt died of covid last night just after midnight about 12 hours after my uncle, her husband. I found out this morning and was the one who told mom. It is just so sad. Fortunately my cousins were allowed in the room for several hours to be with her after he died yesterday. I really wish I/we could be with my mom as my dad has already died (not recently) and I hate that she is alone in her grief. I hate this fucking disease! Mom, at least, is likely to be OK as she has had a relatively mild case although she hasn’t tested negative yet.

@mike808 I hope you get your car back in one piece sooner rather than later and it was just a joy rider who doesn’t do anything bad to it. I also hope you didn’t have anything important in your car. If someone stole mine it is full of crap I’d miss. I guess I should rethink that. Dealing with insurance is a pain. You forgot to blame for that.