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In Wisconsin our neighbors are the Youpers (Upper peninsula of Michigan), Flatlanders (Illinois), pig farmers (Iowa), and A+~!~#~s (Minnesota).
Yes, in Wisconsin flatlander is synonymous with Illinois.Wisconsin's major invasive predator is the ever ubiquitous Flatlander.I'm assuming you're talking about people from Illinois?
The way I've always heard it, "Flatlander" is one of those highly non-specific regional definitions, somewhat similar to E.B. White's definition of "Yankee*". I've heard people in the UP call people from northern Wisconsin "Flatlanders." (To be fair, Wisconsin is pretty damn flat...)
It's also used pretty heavily in inland New England, where it simply means "anyone not from inland New England" As in, "Oh, you're from Denver? Welcome to Castleton Corners, Flatlander."
I'm in Illinois. Right now!
I'm in Illinois. Right now!
Feel like taking a trip out to Iowa?
I'm in Illinois. Right now!Feel like taking a trip out to Iowa?
I would if I could. But this is a family togetherness trip.
So much family. So much togetherness.
Family.
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It's nice to be able to stick up for workers who aren't so well-established.
Just got directly contacted by a startup in Santa Clara that needs a manager for their Curriculum Development department. I'm a perfect fit. Except they're insisting on hybrid work with me in the office twice a week.
I get to say, "No, the fact that you want me to commute to Santa Clara twice a week is a deal-breaker. Sorry."
It's not a huge win by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd like to keep reinforcing this idea that if you're insisting on people coming to your office without a valid reason, you're going to lose candidates.
(I've been under remote managers for 18 years now and it works just fine.)
Sounds wonderful.
Is that contagious?
I love it when the world throws something utterly confusing at you.
Watching the house next door over the last month, it became obvious that the owners are going to re-rent it. As I mentioned, a couple of weeks ago a couple with a baby was checking the place out. Yesterday one of them was back, baby in arms, checking all around the outside. I figured they'd be our new neighbors.
Today property manager is back and he's showing the house to a different family.
Theories:
(1) Original couple declined to take it (or failed a credit check). While this is common, I can't believe the property manager could line up a new candidate in under 24 hours. On the other hand, housing around here is so hot that maybe he could. So it's my strongest theory at the moment.
(2) Original couple was concerned about baby-proofing and asked for a second look. I've never known a property manager to be willing to let potential tenants view the property twice, but at the rates they're charging, maybe it's due diligence on couple #1's part and the property manager is *gasp* doing his job.
(3) Original couple are actually friends of the owners taking care of making sure the property manager's doing his job. This could be a solid bet; if I were a remote owner and I couldn't get to the house, I'd want someone I trusted to inspect it.
Anyhoo, at least it's providing entertainment for me. That's something.
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It's my birthday, so The Rule is EVERYBODY in the house has to listen to jazz fusion all day, whether they like it or not.
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It's my birthday, so The Rule is EVERYBODY in the house has to listen to jazz fusion all day, whether they like it or not.
Happy Birthday Limey!
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It's my birthday, so The Rule is EVERYBODY in the house has to listen to jazz fusion all day, whether they like it or not.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIMEY
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It's my birthday, so The Rule is EVERYBODY in the house has to listen to jazz fusion all day, whether they like it or not.
Happy Birthday! Here’s a present, ignore the smell of sulphur!
*Gives Limeylongears a beautifully wrapped gift, however, it smells funny and is unusually warm.*
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Happy Limeysaday!
We need a "Kitchen Felonies" YouTube series, where the hosts commit various atrocities against established recipes and culinary traditions.
I have added shredded mozzarella to pork in sweet and sour sauce, served on (randomly picked) pasta.
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Happy Birthday, Limey!
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It's my birthday, so The Rule is EVERYBODY in the house has to listen to jazz fusion all day, whether they like it or not.
Happy Birthday Limey!
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Happy Mother's Day, FaWtLie-moms!!
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Sometimes you will siege a tower, sometimes a tower will siege you.
Sometimes you will siege a tower, sometimes a tower will siege you.
i thought that only happened in Mother Russia . . . .
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and a belated Happy Level Up, Limey!!
I'm going to steak and shake.
I'm going to steak and shake.
"Be on your guard! There are fouler things than dorks in the Midwestern places of the world."
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I am utterly perplexed at what's going on with my mother right now.
She had another fainting spell, this time on her walk. A passerby called 911 and she's in the ER again. Very typical of my mother to be in the ER for Mother's Day. But Older Brother says they might kick her out of her nursing home assisted living complex over this.
And my question is, "WTF?!?!" Isn't their entire purpose to provide scaling support for aging clients? Last time she fell we had to pay a pretty penny for 24/7 care for a week, then arranged to nearly double her rent for daily check-ups. I figured this would be another $100-$200/day for someone to go walking with her, but they're considering evicting her.
So... being evicted from a nursing home for being too old. I am baffled.
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I'm going to steak and shake.
Don't shake that steak too much.
I am utterly perplexed at what's going on with my mother right now.
She had another fainting spell, this time on her walk. A passerby called 911 and she's in the ER again. Very typical of my mother to be in the ER for Mother's Day. But Older Brother says they might kick her out of her
nursing homeassisted living complex over this.And my question is, "WTF?!?!" Isn't their entire purpose to provide scaling support for aging clients? Last time she fell we had to pay a pretty penny for 24/7 care for a week, then arranged to nearly double her rent for daily check-ups. I figured this would be another $100-$200/day for someone to go walking with her, but they're considering evicting her.
So... being evicted from a nursing home for being too old. I am baffled.
For being too old? No.
For being a serious insurance/lawsuit liability, too damned stubborn and resistant to care? Yes.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
For being too old? No.
For being a serious insurance/lawsuit liability, too damned stubborn and resistant to care? Yes.
I'll agree with the insurance/liability part of it. But when they said, "You need a 24/7 caretaker," she griped about it but accepted it. Then they said, "You need this level of care to remain here," and again she accepted it.
So so far she hasn't once told them, "No, I won't do that."
That's my issue with it -- she's obviously a liability problem and they need to protect themselves, but they need to tell us what we can do other than, "She keeps falling over so we're kicking her out."
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In general, peoples motivation is to keep their job, not get their job done. The worse the management and bureaucracy, the more those two things will diverge. As a baseline, excellence is not rewarded but Screwing up is punished. That HEAVILY disincentivizes risk taking, even if the cost benefit risk reward analysis would normally yield better outcomes at slightly riskier behavior.
Medical care has a LOT of bureaucracy involved.
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Crossing paths with my neighbor in the hallway:
Neighbor: "Whoa, where did you go to get so tan?"
Me: "Uh... outside."
Neighbor: "I guess that makes sense..."
Outside? Is that something to eat?
Outside? Is that something to eat?
Ooooh... apparently I set myself up for a long period of "fun" bureaucracy.
After one of the 201x data breaches, I locked down my credit scores at all three credit reporting agencies. No new accounts, no new credit, nothing. Companies can't get access to my credit scores no matter what their excuse.
So GothBard wants to get us away from Amazon so I decided to get us a Costco credit card.
"We cannot process your request because your credit score is locked. Please contact Experian to release the lock."
Perfect. Everything's working exactly as expected.
Went to Experian. "Sorry. That password doesn't match our records."
OK. Reset the password. "Sorry. The phone number you gave us doesn't match our records."
Somehow Experian locked my credit with a bunch of incorrect information.
Whee?
Curiouser and curiouser.
After multiple failed attempts with both my and GothBard's information, I tried, "Create a new account" and that worked and I got in to Experian and unlocked my credit. I did the same with Equifax and Transunion.
Then I re-applied for the card... and was denied.
I am... bemused. We have the highest annual income in our lifetimes, no credit card debt, and a mortgage load of 13.2% of gross, well under the 30% that is considered "healthy".
They said I should expect a letter of explanation along with an appeal form in 7-10 business days. I look forward to reading it.
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You have too good credit score and they found it suspicious.
You have too good credit score and they found it suspicious.
I'm guessing AI fraud detection. Banks use it and it's so terrible that we had to block our credit union's phone number because Impus Minor kept triggering a fraud alert every month, then even after calling in to clear it they kept calling.
So, "He tried to apply and his credit report was blocked, then he tried again and his credit report was mysteriously unblocked. Must be fraud."
I'll call a human being when I get some free time today and see whether I can walk them through the process.
Amusingly enough, I was worried that my credit score had plummeted because I've heard you're supposed to keep a small balance on at least one card just to make credit card companies happy but apparently that's a myth; my score's up 30 points since our last loan in 2020.
EDIT: OK. I must admit, I'm disappointed that it's that simple. I got the letter of explanation via email and it's just that they still can't access my credit scores so I shoul try again this afternoon after the unfreezes have had a chance to take effect. I was hoping for something stupider.
And that, in a nutshell, is what I hate about holiday weekends. Battle Beast coming to town? They'll play on a holiday weekend. Shiro coming to town? He'll come on a holiday weekend. Another friend from far away wants to visit us? They'll come on a holiday weekend.
So yeah, Memorial Day is already stupid overbooked for us and I'm sure the kids'll get 3-4 invitations to do things as well. Which is especially irritating considering they're all on summer break.
I go out of my way to avoid booking anything with anybody on holiday weekends. Because you end up with stupidity like this.
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June 1-16. Road trip. Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Home.
I am excited, even though I wanted three weeks to do it instead of two.
June 1-16. Road trip. Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Home.
I am excited, even though I wanted three weeks to do it instead of two.
At that rate there's no way you'll be driving anything other than I-5 through California, then the I-15 cutover.
Congratulations! You've found the single-most-boring possible route through the state! :D
More seriously, if you *do* manage to have time to drive the coast (1 or 101), it's well worth it, *AND* you can stop by and we'll buy you dinner.
The coastal highway is absolutely worth the drive.
I'm intending on zero interstates, and yes, driving as much of the PCH as mudslides will allow.
Should be hitting the Bay Area around June 8th or 9th. Thereabouts.
The coastal highway is absolutely worth the drive.
Yes it is. But speaking of holidays, I did the drive around Labor Day weekend, and traffic was horrendous every place that had beach access.
Once the weekend was over, and we were further north it got way better.
The coastal highway is absolutely worth the drive.Yes it is. But speaking of holidays, I did the drive around Labor Day weekend, and traffic was horrendous every place that had beach access.
Once the weekend was over, and we were further north it got way better.
You got lucky. On Memorial Day weekend the average speed on Highway 1 in our area is, I kid you not, 5 mph.
I'm intending on zero interstates, and yes, driving as much of the PCH as mudslides will allow.
Should be hitting the Bay Area around June 8th or 9th. Thereabouts.
Cool deal. PM me once your dates start solidifying and I can get us reservations somewhere. Unfortunately, the "great" California cuisine places are all either gone (Rivoli) or crappy (Chez Panisse), but we have excellent places of almost every other ethnicity imaginable. Bowl'd has killer Korean. Sobo Ramen is the best ramen I've ever had. China Village is solid Chinese. Etc.
EDIT: And speaking of British pub food, the Kensington Circus Pub is fantastic if you're in the mood for such things. Except their fries, which for some reason are pretty bad.
June 1-16. Road trip. Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Home.
I am excited, even though I wanted three weeks to do it instead of two.
Passing through my desolate neck of the woods! Whereabouts in Kansas?
Cutting across northern Kansas to Colorado Springs.
Currently planning on stopping in Manhattan on the 1st.
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I'm intending on zero interstates, and yes, driving as much of the PCH as mudslides will allow.
Should be hitting the Bay Area around June 8th or 9th. Thereabouts.
Cool deal. PM me once your dates start solidifying and I can get us reservations somewhere. Unfortunately, the "great" California cuisine places are all either gone (Rivoli) or crappy (Chez Panisse), but we have excellent places of almost every other ethnicity imaginable. Bowl'd has killer Korean. Sobo Ramen is the best ramen I've ever had. China Village is solid Chinese. Etc.
EDIT: And speaking of British pub food, the Kensington Circus Pub is fantastic if you're in the mood for such things. Except their fries, which for some reason are pretty bad.
Coleslaw with fish and chips?
Coleslaw?
Bring it over here and let us chuck it in Boston harbour (not THAT Boston, but the original and best)
Also, I'm not sure who voted Fuller's as England's best bitter, but it certainly wasn't me.
And it's 'fare', not 'fair'