biodork

This music video is hilarious... fans of The Big Bang Theory will recognize the two ladies (NSFW):

That does sound awesome! I've always wanted to see that area; someday!

Yeah, I'm glad it's finally moving forward. But JC if I'd known ahead of time it'd be 6 weeks inbetween jobs I would've filed for unemployment much sooner. I only did on July 12th after my mom suggested looking into it, and it was approved but it's not retroactive and I think they don't pay the first week, anyhow. All better than nothing, but holy hell my budget is shot.

Sounds gross, but worth checking into... I'd tried fox urine granules in the past and had no luck. Diluted Tabasco spray is great to keep them from eating the plants, but doesn't deter them from digging. Job update: FINALLY just heard from them about an offer. Still need to get official paperwork emailed and returned and schedule the health screen. Tentative start date is 8/10. :(

Sorry to hear, man. :( Good on you for not putting up with it, though. Here's my list for the week: 1) I'm still unemployed. Called and talked to my HR contact yesterday morning and she said I should hear something by the end of the day, and here it is, the end of the next business day, and still nothing. 2) F'n rabbits destroying my newly mulched flower beds by making burrows everywhere! 3) House has been on the market for a week with no showings. 4) Every time I go to visit my dad in the hospital it costs $40-50 between Turnpike tolls, parking fees, and food. 5) Yesterday he seemed to be in much better spirits, until the very end of the day when he and I were talking about my upcoming move and he started crying. I'm not sure I've ever seen my dad cry in all my life. It kills me to know I'm adding to his pain at a time like this when he has so much else to worry about.

Geez, I need to get to drinking... I've only had two on that list (Buffalo Trace and Larceny)!

Welcome back, NS.

This one? http://anovaculinary.com/anova-precision-cooker/ I was just coveting that last week... much nicer than investing in a giant water bath.

I'm sorry about the horse, Jo. :( And condolences to you also, ubkev. Now on to my list... 1) I am still unemployed. It's been just over a week now since I submitted the required application to HR and they have yet to contact me with an official offer. And even after they do, I won't be permitted to start until they complete a background check and I complete a health screen. If this is their idea of expediting things, I'd hate to think how long a normal job recruitment would take. 2) I did not budget for an extra 2-3 weeks unpaid "vacation" between jobs, and am starting to freak out about what my finances will look like in 6 weeks after the last of my vacation payout from the previous job have been used. 3) I had to take apart and re-assemble that stupid GD toilet a total of FIVE times last week and buy another new tool before I could get everything tightened enough to finally stop the leak. 4) My dad's surgery was yesterday. They took him back to the OR (late) at noon, started the surgery around 2pm, finished around 2:30am, and we were finally able to see him in his room around 5:30am. I'd only slept 3 hours the night before, and probably only slept 3 hours total last night in several 30 min. increments on uncomfortable waiting area chairs at the hospital. They had planned to just remove a section of his right jaw and do a graft from his upper leg, but when they opened him up they found the tumor (not lesion) was more extensive than they thought and ended up removing the entire right side of his jaw from the joint to his chin and just doing a soft tissue graft from his leg to fill the space. They were reasonably confident they removed all the cancer, but also removed the lymph nodes for biopsy and are planning on radiation therapy in around 6 weeks. He's got a feeding tube and a temporary tracheostomy for breathing since the swelling from the surgery partially blocks his airway at the back of his throat for now. He will likely go home with both still in place a week or so from now and will almost certainly need speech therapy since he no longer has any teeth on the lower right side. The jaw may be able to be reconstructed in some manner much further down the road, but for now that makes a return to his current job highly unlikely. It sounded like this was actually a slow-growing cancer from the bone left over in 2002 rather than a new malignancy that started in the cheek and invaded the bone... the doc said his jaw probably would've fractured on its own in a couple more weeks due to the extent of the damage. All this time my dad has been trying to tell his previous doctors there was something wrong, and no one could be bothered to take the time to investigate properly. It never should've gotten this bad, and he's going to be devastated when he realizes what they had to do.

Craigslist, man... people will take anything for free. I had listed a full gallon of white paint and two quarts of off-white and a bluish-green color and some guy paid $5 for it even though when he came over he was like, "what color are these?" lol. And just yesterday I had someone who willingly took the enormous and incredibly dirty wall mounted microwave that's been sitting in my garage for almost 3 years! That's fantastic. :lol:

I'm guessing you don't have pets, lol... not that it isn't gross, but enough to cancel dinner plans later that evening? Maybe I'm just desensitized after cleaning dog poop on a nightly basis for several weeks.

I guess so! For some reason I thought you were more Northwest like PA.

Hiking the Falls Trail at Ricketts Glen today was awesome... low 80s, sunny, and (for once) not humid. Perfect.

You free Sunday or Monday? ;) I've got lots of basil!

:lol:

Fresh homemade pesto. It's probably the only thing keeping me from going postal right now, but the rest will have to wait until next Thursday.

Ouch. Hope you're not allergic! It's definitely outside, I tried the food coloring thing and there's nothing transferring to the bowl. And it's a slow enough leak that the water level isn't dropping noticeably. I can actually see it coming around the top of the gasket at the base of the tank.

Last week after the home inspection my toilet started ghost flushing. I've replaced the flapper before and that's no big deal, but the toilet is 20 yrs old and the fill tube was getting brittle, so I figured it'd be smarter to just replace everything since they have kits for only $20. Did that on Sunday, and it was a little time-consuming but got everything re-assembled and congratulated myself on a job well done. Later noticed a slight leak around the bolts, so I took it apart again and re-tightened everything more (the directions make you paranoid about over-tightening and I'd not done it enough). Put it back together, problem fixed. Except no, now there's a slow constant leak around the flush valve gasket. Ugh. Took it all apart again last night, tried to tighten the lock nut just a little bit more (which is difficult with channel pliers because they don't open quite wide enough to get a firm grip), put it back together, tighten the bolts just a little more, and hope for the best. Nope... STILL have a slow leak around the gasket at the base of the tank. I have no idea if this "universal" kit just doesn't work with my toilet or I just can't tighten that GD lock nut enough with channel pliers, but dammit I'm tired of messing around with this stupid effing toilet when I have a million other things to do to finish getting my house ready for listing next week!! Why, oh why didn't I just replace the flapper instead of fixing something that wasn't broken? :( I don't even know what brand of toilet it is to look for a specific replacement since the only markings are "Made in Chile" and none of the stamped numbers match any model on plumbing supply websites. ARGH. And I still don't have a start date for the new job... HR only just posted the position yesterday and I applied, but still waiting for them to go through their idiotic steps.

Angry Eleven makes an appearance! I think it's funny that in the email notification I got since my post was quoted there was no filter. :) Good catch... I couldn't make out the wording before and didn't really know what the Marines sticker looked like, so I just took d4rk at his word. NRA is in keeping with the rest of the stickers, though. :lol:

Ha! I hadn't even noticed that before.

Now there's an expansion city I could get on board with.

THINK, d4rk! ;) Methinks that driver doth protest too much...

Yeah, that's unfortunate... there's very little competition sports-wise there, but the Thunder are a huge draw and the demographics of the city haven't yet changed to include enough people who would support hockey, unfortunately. It doesn't help that their NHL affiliate was Edmonton (both terrible and very distant). :( I still want this to happen, if only so that he can retire a Sabre. I knew I had the wrong person before!

:lol:

Well, he's locked up at least one vote (saw this on my way home today):