Grr... "Can we prevent people from entering special characters when they put in a phone number?"
How about, "Can you learn to fricking code like an adult and strip the special characters yourself?"
EDIT: Speaking of stripping characters...
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Oops. I just inadvertently created the "squirrel death challenge".
After Blacky nearly caught a crow yesterday (got within 2' of it and if he'd been bigger/a better hunter he would've nailed it), I moved the crow food on top of the catio. (Literally an outdoor cage you put your indoor cats in so they can enjoy being outdoors without the dangers or the harnesses. They hated it at first, but now they've started going in there and hanging out even when they're free on leads.)
So, the squirrels love the crow food (at least the nuts). But they must now climb a wire cage full of kittens to get at it. And oooh, they are NOT happy about this arrangement.
Their angry chittering soothes my soul.
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It's THE BIG BALLET NIGHT.
Hermione's ballet company does an unabridged ballet every year for the Spring show; it's not just a student recital.Last year it was Swan Lake, before that it was Raymonda, before that, Coppelia. I don't remember prior years because she wasn't old enough to be cast.
Anyway, this year is Don Quixote.
She doesn't have a named role; as usual, she's a wedding/court dancer (so many classical ballets end with elaborate weddings at the palace of the fill-in-the-blank King/Duke/whatever).
So I dropped her off in front of the theater for her call, hollered "Merde!" out the window, went and parked the car, and walked down the block to the best fried chicken place in Dallas for a pre-show supper, since no one else in my family will go here with me, and it's taken me to the age of fifty to be comfortable taking myself out for dinner without feeling awkward or guilty.
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Yeah, but in Arizona, June usually ushers in dry heat followed by extreme dry heat, and hot dry afternoon winds. We hope for the summer thunderstorms to roll in around the 4th of July, bringing some relief.Rain. In June. So confusing.Not in the UK, it’s pretty common here.
I’ll trade you the dry heat of Arizona for the utterly dismal and often rainy weather of the UK.
I wish Tacticslion was here for this, I have noone to celebrate with.
I sent it to him yesterday!
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What is the difference between an S-class kitten and a C-class kitten?
The Fluffernutter is so old and decrepit that she exists on soup: I mix canned cat food with water, microwave it, and bring her warm soup four times a day. For reasons beyond my comprehension, all three kittens consider this the Best Food Ever and persistently try to steal it.
C-class kitten: Hears me open the can. Runs into the kitchen. Watches me prepare the soup. Attempts to follow me into the room. Gets grabbed and tossed out. Every. Single. Morning. Without fail.
S-class kitten: Started off with the same behavior as C-class kitten, realized it didn't work, and started staying in the room waiting for the food to arrive. She'd still jump down while I was in the room and get thrown out. Then she'd try to take the food while the Fluffernutter was eating and the growls would alert me. So this morning when I started stirring she left the bed. I have no idea where she went. She completely hid while I put out both the kitten food and the Flutternutter's soup. I never heard a growl nor a peep. But once i opened the bedroom door half an hour later the soup bowl was empty and I finally spotted her happily trotting around the house. I have no idea where she hid. I have no idea how she got the soup without upsetting the Fluffernutter. But I'm sure she got it, and I have no idea how.
I wish Tacticslion was here for this, I have noone to celebrate with.I sent it to him yesterday!
Make him come here so we can CELEBRATE
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Speaking of S-class kittens, Stripey is definitely showing her stripes, as it were. She's now outweighed by Fluffy by more than 2:1. So she's learned where all the little nooks that Fluffy can't fit into are, sets up defensively there, and they have epic battles as Fluffy attempts to pierce her fortifications and she puts up a fierce defense. They have an absolute blast.
Blacky, erm, just jumps on Stripey when he sees her out in the open. Then gets mauled by Fluffy because adoptive sisters. I feel kind of bad for him, but the hoomans love his dopey beauty, so I think he'll be fine.
EDIT: He has also absolutely mastered the, "Curl up on a black piece of furniture and gaze at the hoomans with big golden eyes," trick. I wish cameras could do him justice. He is a majestic, beautiful beast. And he is NOT "dumb as a post". He is an average-intelligence cat surrounded by brilliant cats. So not "dumb but beautiful" but "average but beautiful". And isn't that worse? 'Cause he probably knows the other cats are all smarter than him...
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And yes, FTR, Stripey's mother is already small, and Stripey was the runt of the litter, so I am fully expecting her adult weight to be under 7 pounds. Fluffy's father is a monster and she shows every sign of following in his footsteps; she may well hit a healthy weight of 14-15 pounds. So that 2:1 weight ratio is unlikely to go away.
Eh, both Lies Of P and Sekiro are 50% off... And they are still far above what I have on PayPal.
Maybe in a few months...
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Okay. Slight improvement today.
Things are looking up.
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The universe wants to make me melancholy today.
First, I learned that the Monsters, Inc. ride at Disneyland is shutting down after 20 years. In spite of all the lost memories of my alcoholic years, one of the best memories I have of the kids' childhoods was taking Impus Major on the ride when it very first opened. I forget why, but an attendant let us in a side entrance to skip the line. Impus Major loved the ride and screamed his little head off at all the appropriate points. And when we got off the ride, he was awarded a "Screamer of the Day" certificate by a beaming Disney cast member. Back when Disneyland actually cared about, y'know, the whole experience 'n' such.
So I was already on memory lane when I went out to light the pilot light in the studio and the Fluffernutter asked to come in with me, then meowed insistently for pets... and purred and purred and purred like she hasn't done in a decade. And I remembered how we used to refer to her as "the purr monster" and we hadn't heard that motorboat-like rumbling in nearly a decade. The meds are doing an incredible job for her. But realizing this, and the fact that she's being nearly forgotten as everyone dotes on the kittens, made me sit there petting her and listening to her purrs for a solid 10 minutes, thinking about her life and how soon she'd be leaving us and what I can possibly do (besides the drugs) to make her life better in the meantime. I thought she was enjoying her (possibly) final spring and summer in the yard, spending every daylight hour lying among the ginger lilies or on the sun-warmed concrete, basking her old bones and dreaming of times past. But she wants us, too. She made that very clear this morning. And I'm going to go out and pet her some more, because otherwise I'm a monster.
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What if you could understand what birds are saying, and it was just them shouting "I'M SCARED OF HEIGHTS!!!"?
Its a lot of mineminemine get out of here, and touch my wife and I will murder you
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It's been quite a while since I wrote one, but today PetCo got a NobodysHome Letter™. Such letters have generated apologies from the IRS and DMV, or hundreds of dollars in free kit from Brio (gotta admit, Brio REALLY cares about its customer satisfaction).
I strongly suspect PetCo will ignore me, but the short version is that they offer a $240/year membership program that's supposed to get you $15/month in rewards points, but you're extremely limited in how you can actually spend those points and you can't ever check the total to see whether you're getting your money's worth, so it feels far more like a rip-off con than a rewards program.
Which, speaking as an industry insider who helped write courses on customer loyalty programs, is a Bad Thing.
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What if you could understand what birds are saying, and it was just them shouting "I'M SCARED OF HEIGHTS!!!"?Its a lot of mineminemine get out of here, and touch my wife and I will murder you
But it sounds pretty!
Gee, and here I thought it was mostly "Hey pretty lady, want to come up and see my etchings?"
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Fantasy Monster: Waxen Scholar
Who would thought that an open flame in an ancient, crumbling library is a good idea?
Oh, they remember stone and waxen tablets...
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Things that almost make NobodysHome feel guilty:
Impus Minor has been formally accepted to CSUEB, so he has to attend a mandatory all-day orientation over the summer. Yes, of course they allow a "parent or supporter" to come along. Yes, of course I signed up Impus Major as the supporter.
No, I have no regrets. Almost. But no. The joy they inspire will be worth it.
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Gee, and here I thought it was mostly "Hey pretty lady, want to come up and see my etchings?"What if you could understand what birds are saying, and it was just them shouting "I'M SCARED OF HEIGHTS!!!"?Its a lot of mineminemine get out of here, and touch my wife and I will murder you
But it sounds pretty!
Those are the Free(hold)birds. It is hilarious watching them attempt to fly while holding another bird under their wing.
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Okay. New phone is up and running. Can log into paizo without a problem now. Things are returning to normal.
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Okay. New phone is up and running. Can log into paizo without a problem now. Things are returning to normal.
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Impus Major: I love to get home, reach into a flower, and pet a kitten. And if that isn't the most wonderful sentence in the English language, I don't know what is.
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That is the most 1970s cat treehouse I've ever seen. Needs several strategically placed glitter-balls.
That is the most 1970s cat treehouse I've ever seen. Needs several strategically placed glitter-balls.
It has beeg hanging balls. Once I start uploading home pics (hopefully by the end of this month) you'll see.
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So, I understand that for consultants, time is quite literally money so questioning their clients' decisions isn't in their best interests.
But today's question is such a, "No! Bad customer!" moment: "We want to know whether there's a maximum number of performance review cycles per year, because the customer wants ."
So, you have a customer who wants to implement a performance review system where there's more than two performance reviews per week? And you're NOT telling the customer, "Um, you might want to re-think your business processes on this one, rather than simply unquestioningly implementing it in software"?
Yes, I'm sure our application could handle several thousand review cycles a year. But what the heck are you doing!?!?!?!
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OK. Let's see whether this works:
Lenore, aka Fluffy in her Meowsoleum.
Mephisto Q. Meatball, aka Blacky on the ottoman.
Morrigan, aka Stripey in a flower. And if you look at Morrigan, Limey, you will indeed see a big hanging ball behind her.
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Has stripes, sits on flower.
That's not a cat! That's a bee!
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Has stripes, sits on flower.
That's not a cat! That's a bee!
Considering that her growth curve has her topping out at under 5 pounds, she's going to be the size of a bee as well. Well, a *big* bee, but..
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The kittens' first test is upon them: The lemon rats have returned.
Our lemon tree produces a ludicrous number of lemons for its size. The rats have learned this, and some move into the tree for the summer to enjoy the bounty. They're smart enough to avoid coming into the house, but the kittens have definitely smelled them in the side yard. I suspect that if Fluffy encountered a rat she would attempt to adopt it, which isn't a particularly useful way to save our lemons. Stripey and Blacky were born of and raised by a barn cat. Blacky already nearly downed a crow.
I'll be interested in seeing how long it takes before the lemon rats perish.
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And these two really love each other, in spite of the ridiculous size differential.
By current growth curves, Fluffy will be 14-15 pounds; Stripey might hit 6.
Rain. In June. So confusing.
Going to be the norm for Scint and I going forward. Summer is the Rainy Season in Chengdu, primarily June and July.
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Rain. In June. So confusing.Going to be the norm for Scint and I going forward. Summer is the Rainy Season in Chengdu, primarily June and July.
K look forward to you teaching us all to swear in Chinese.
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K look forward to you teaching us all to swear in Chinese.Rain. In June. So confusing.Going to be the norm for Scint and I going forward. Summer is the Rainy Season in Chengdu, primarily June and July.
Since I won't be working I probably won't get a ton of exposure compared to Scint. She on the other hand has repeatedly stated that she'll need to learn all the bad words in Chinese so she'll know when her students are using them.
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Yep. My kids.
Impus Major is out back livestreaming as he herds the kittens around the back yard and talks about selling their eggs.
I learned today that the cats immediately leave the room if I start singing 'All Of Me'. Filing for future reference.
GAH!
*flees*
Quiet morning.
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Our plane tickets have been bought. Official departure date is set.
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I have to set up twelve workstations by tomorrow, using six network outlets, and most of the equipment is being delivered today. Going to be a busy afternoon.
Our plane tickets have been bought. Official departure date is set.
May your travel be safe and your arrival a pleasant one.
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Wow... PetCo strikes out looking.
(1) I very consciously did not give them a phone number in my letter. So they called multiple times from a "Caller ID Blocked" number. And gee... I didn't answer.
(2) When they reached out by email, I re-explained my two issues: In the program, you accumulate points that you then convert into $5 online coupons. You are also awarded 3 additional coupons per month. My complaints:
a) As far as I can tell, there is no way to see how many coupons you have at the moment unless to start an online order, load up the cart with nonsense, and go to checkout. At which point it will show you your active coupones.
b) After multiple attempts, you cannot use the coupons in the store.
The agent's response? "You can always see your point total here, and if you go into the store your sales associate can apply the coupons."
Not what I asked, and no, no you can't.
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"If you're going to offend someone, it should be an English person. Not British, but specifically English. Because they really did a number on..just...the globe, really."
Get on with it, then.
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Teensy Valeros and I are back a day early from our mom-and-son camping trip. We had three days of continuous thunderstorms, and everything we own is wet and muddy. I've had less soggy and more comfortable vacations on dive boats.
I've scrubbed out the inside of the tent and the sleeping pads and they are hanging over the kids' slack line in the backyard, and I'm at the laundromat washing our muddy sleeping bags because our washer at home can't handle them.
At least I get to sleep warm and dry tonight, not on the ground.
I think I am officially done with tent camping. It may be time to start looking for one of those lightweight, single axle rv pods that I can tow behind my Subaru.