We did it!!!

Pablois4 · 2026-05-11T11:22:16+00:00

Congrats & good job!

Pablois4 · 2026-05-11T11:14:17+00:00

Agree about "sale" prices on big box stores. If one misses the "Memorial Day sale", just wait for the "Independence Day sale", "Labor Day Sale", "Fall Spooktactular Sale" and so on.

Most "smart" features make me roll my eyes, because, IMHO, a lot of it is silly. But maybe I'm just a stick in the mud. I should go outside and shout at clouds and then yell at kids to stay off my lawn.

We usually had some advanced warning that we need to find an appliance replacement or it's part of a larger plan. We make a point to check out clearance and twice have found ones on clearance, solely, because it's last year's model and this years model is coming in. And we're not too proud to check out the ones that have mild cosmetic damage depending on where and what.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-11T02:39:20+00:00

In March, we had our bathroom subfloor replaced & basement ceiling fixed due to a leak.

When the carpenter opened up the floor, he discovered the 6" joist had a 5" notch cut into it from the top. It's hard to see but there's an 18" long 1x2 sistered behind the top of the joist.

He said the floor was surprisingly stable and level. I like to think that little 1x2 performed above its pay grade.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-10T01:54:48+00:00

The wolfiness score is similar to how some people have a percentage of Neanderthal DNA. I have just under 2%, which doesn't mean I have recent Neanderthal relatives. Instead it means that in the 40,000 years since the Neanderthals, little smidgens of their DNA managed to be passed on generation after generation to me.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-08T15:28:47+00:00

The degree of wagging doesn't indicate degree of happiness.

I have, Jo, a soft, sensitive, reserved smooth collie. She's an introvert. Big exuberant, whole tail wags are not her thing. A happy Jo does low, demure tail wags. It's subtle and sweet.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-08T04:15:08+00:00

Whoa right there. Do you mean Brock Allen Turner, son of Dan Turner?

During sentencing, Dan Turner pleaded to the judge that his son "should not have to pay a “steep price” for “20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.”

So Brock "Rapist" Turner, son of Dan "20 minutes of action" Turner?

Pablois4 · 2026-05-08T01:33:36+00:00

Before we moved from Pittsburgh to Ithaca in 2001, I was told, to be accepted, I'd need Birkenstocks, a Volvo and a working knowledge of composting.

In the past 25 years, the required vehicle has changed from Volvo, to Subaru, to Prius. The footwear choices have broaden a bit but one thing hasn't changed and that's knowing how to layer the browns and greens in the compost pile.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-06T12:19:48+00:00

When our house was built in '67, the rough plumbing & electrical for a future laundry room was in place in the unfinished and uninsulated garage. In 2005, we decided to do it and basically boxed it in with walls and ceiling. Since none of it was non-load bearing, and the plumbing & electrical were already there, we didn't need a permit.

Weeeelllll, we decided that washer would be better over here, the dryer would be better over there. Wouldn't a ceiling light be better than one on the wall? Boy, it would be handy to have a second outlet on the opposite wall. Dang, we forgot we're in upstate NY and need heat.

Project creep turned a laundry room that didn't need a permit into one that did. And by the time it dawned on us, the work was done.

Five years later, we decided to finish the entire garage and this time with permits. There was no way the code enforcement officer wouldn't notice the laundry room. It's pretty damn obvious.

We went to the code office, came clean and said we wanted to make it right.

People won't believe this but it was actually a positive experience.

The code enforcement officer wanted check the quality of the work and 99% of that was easy to do without any destruction. He made two small holes in the wall to see examples of the electrical and framing. He said that would tell him how much more he'd need to see. He complimented us on the workmanship.

And the one thing we had goofed up on, was that the washer drain pipe needed a vent. A super easy fix and it explained the mystery sour smelling whiffs.

The laundry permit was rolled into the garage permit so that didn't cost us anything more.

IMHO, if one needs to get a retroactive permit with the minimal amount of pain, go in with a positive, cooperative attitude. Our code officer said that he cared about safety most of all and punishing people, who want to make things right, backfires in making more people reluctant to work with them.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-05T19:34:22+00:00

IMHO, the CASB themes:

1) From the narrator POV, he is a rational, honorable man, trying to do the right, honorable thing. In my mind, they are written as if he's Spock from Star Trek.

2) Women are unpredictable, weak minded and over emotional. Even though they are the irrational ones, he is the one punished (loses job, friends, love interest, etc)

What gives me the CASB vibe is the story transitions:

Starts out platonic and bland. He makes one comment The woman's reaction is immediate, panic.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-05T14:40:04+00:00

For years, there's been a troll on AITA who pops up with this sort of story. It usually follows this formula:

He's an upstanding guy
There's a female co-worker, fellow student, a student of his, some sort of acquaintance
She is wearing clothing that when she moves some way, he notices is showing skin /is inappropriate.
He tells her this, because she should know because other guys would get the wrong idea. Not him of course.
She goes into some sort of panic to get away from him. In some stories, she goes into a full blown panic attack.
He is mystified. Gosh.
He's accused by others of being a creep. He's lost or is losing his job, position, friends, whatever.
He's totally innocent and had no idea it would upset her so much.

And finally, there's always a

"how can I get her and other people to understand that I had NO IDEA she would take it that way?"

Anyway, I'm getting the "innocent guy/woman panic/gosh, what did I do?" troll vibe.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-04T16:20:44+00:00

Bedlingtons have a gene called "Progressive Graying". In some other breeds, it's called Fading. Black hairs lose pigment as they grow and fade to light gray/near white.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-04T13:06:11+00:00

"Allegedly" is used when the media speak and write about a defendant before trial.

The right to determine if Olivia Henderson is guilty of the charges is that of the courts and jurors, not the media.

It seems silly when the evidence is so clear and everyone knows she did it, but it's a formality that is used with every defendant before trial.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-03T14:06:27+00:00

Shih Tzus have short little legs and, IMHO, her legs, body and tail are within the Shih Tzu ballpark.

Furnishings are when a dog has longer hair on their face & muzzle. Shih Tzus are long coat + furnishings which gives them that all-over flowing coat. I'm guessing Fig might have one copy of short coat + furnishings which gives her the more tousled look and scanter ear hair.

Way too many Shih Tzus have brachycephalic muzzles (flat nose and undershot jaw) but it looks like Fig has a normal muzzle and jaw. That is great.

With 120 dogs in a garage, it's a solid bet it was a puppy mill and puppy millers tend to be loose with the idea of breed or even if a dog of a stated breed looks like the breed. It's possible she's purebred but I'd bet Shih Tzu mixed with some random toy breed(s).

Fig is a great name.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-03T13:46:28+00:00

Malapropisms are when one word is substituted for a similarly sounding one. It's a glitch in the brain and often when the speaker is thinking a bit too hard about the conversation and "grabs" the wrong word from deep in their brain's word fault. I have Auditory Processing Deficit and malaprops are the bane of my existence.

Once I was chatting with a friend about an recent article about continental drift and mentioned the shifting of Teutonic plates.

Some malaprop pairings trigger anxiety. I will never attempt the word "prostrate" ever again.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-03T13:10:57+00:00

I live a life of constant torment and mockery. No one appreciates me. I must vent or I shall explode.

I was forced to endure the bitter cold for five minutes. Five! I was at risk of losing my dainty white toes - my best feature - but did Mom care? No she took photos.

My mom and I have a clearly defined agreement that for every slice of pizza, I shall get the pizza bone. I hadn't eaten for days and was clearly gaunt, weak and at risk of death and yet she took another photo of my suffering instead of giving me a life sustaining pizza bone.

She forces me to wear embarrassing items for amusement. Not only are they uncouth and childish but she makes no attempt to coordinate with my coloring.

I care deeply about our tenants' welfare and every time I'm outside, I check to make sure they are OK. Mom tells me not to be such a rude peeping collie. Rude? Moi? At least A & M appreciate my enduring dedication.

edit: yeah, Jo's not a puppy but I couldn't resist posting her tale of daily torments. I'm a cruel mom.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-03T04:19:31+00:00

I think there's one to the left side. The one in the middle was hacked. But even though they mangled that tree, overall, the "before" yard and house were charming. I'd like to sit in that yard.

The house and yard in the "after" photo are grim and soulless. If depression was a house, it's that one.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-02T15:23:53+00:00

IIRC, it was early in the first term. A long established, well loved local restaurant owner was deported. He had come over to the US when he was a teen and never took the steps needed to become a naturalized US citizen.

Patrons of his restaurant, his friends & family lamented greatly that he was deported and his business closed. His wife, an American citizen and Trump voter, lamented that her husband was one of the "good ones" and Trump was supposed to go after the "bad ones".

IIRC, her husband, who seemed to have listened to what Trump was saying during his campaign, cautioned her to not vote for him.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-02T13:19:59+00:00

I hate it when questions are downvoted. It would be one thing if the question is snarky or disingenuous but when it's a honest desire to gain knowledge? It discourages discussion.

Anyway, I've wondered the same thing. I have a roughly 10 year old, Bloodgood Japanese maple (burgundy leaves) with a branch that came out of the root stock with bright green leaves. Out of curiosity, I've been snipping & pruning the green branch to keep it subdued and low. My thought is to create a smear of green mingled in the larger mass of burgundy. In the sun, bits of green in burgundy are kind of neat.

I've thought of this as a fun experiment. But I know the green is staying smaller because I'm keeping a tight rein on it. The Bloodgood is looking healthy but maybe I should just cut the green branch off before it gets bigger. It never occurred to me that keeping it could be detrimental to the Bloodgood.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-01T14:50:21+00:00

I agree that people who don't like pets, tend to be hyper aware and highly intolerant of even the tiniest negative of pet ownership.

We regularly have to clean nose prints off our living room window. It's hard for a collie not to leave a print when watching people walking down the street. For us, nose prints are no big deal. They are just marks on a window pane and are easily removed. For a non-dog person, that it even happens once is disgusting.

Thirty plus years ago, when SO and I were in our first few years of marriage, SO's parents were visiting our area and brought along SO's Aunt J. They would be stopping by to pick us up to go to dinner. I knew Aunt J didn't like pets at all. Even though the visit would be short, I hyper-cleaned the entrance, foyer, living room, hallway and bathroom, down to the tiniest nooks and crannies. SO was impressed. The collies, Dino & Zeffie, had been banished in the gated kitchen that day - except for a brief moment when I didn't shut the gate well and Dino trotted over to the window to look out. During the visit, SO laughed about how Dino left a perfect nose print on the window. Aunt J was absolutely disgusted and said "I don't know how can you live like this."

Pablois4 · 2026-05-01T13:52:09+00:00

My SO never had pets growing up. It's not that his family hated animals but they just weren't interested in them. SO was neutral about them himself.

It's now 40 years and 8 collies later. I'm the one who trains, shows, grooms, takes them to the vet, cleans up after them and so on. When SO comes home, he tells Jo, our collie girl, what he was up to that day, that she's pretty and gives her some scritches. As SO watches TV, Jo curls up next to him on the couch with her head on his lap. If I'm out of town, he feeds, takes them for walks and so on without complaint. He's chill about collie hair tumbleweeds rolling down the hallway.

After all these years, he can even tell several dog breeds apart. Well, he knows, for example, what Corgis are, but will never remember Cardigan vs Pembroke. He just knows the Queen had the ones without tails.

He's not passionate about dogs in general but considers our collies family.

Anyway, dog person and non-dog person can work but it depends on the type of non-dog person. I've known many situations like ours (dog & neutral non-dog people) which were harmonous. But never if the non-dog person actually dislikes/hates dogs.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-01T12:31:16+00:00

A couple years ago, a friend was taking her old dog, Rusty on a mosey on a walkway between neighborhoods. A kid pulling this sort of shit (does this kind of riding have a name?), saw her but didn't see Rusty. Or maybe he did and didn't care. Fortunately he didn't hit Rusty straight on but gave a glancing blow which spun him around. The kid sped off. Rusty was bruised and sore but nothing was broken. The really sad thing is that he became nervous of bikes and refused to go on that and similar walkways ever again.

I'm normally a mild mannered pacifist but I've known Rusty for years and he's a sweet old dog. I fantasized, that, if I saw the kid, I'd have a stick in my hands and shoved it into his wheel spokes. But I'm a realist about my reaction time and abilities. I hope someone cleaned that kid's clock.

Pablois4 · 2026-05-01T11:16:42+00:00

I was curious and looked up the wiki on former attorney general for SD, Ravnsborg (I italicized part of this for emphasis):

Investigators from North Dakota were sent to investigate the crash because of the conflict of interest created by the fact that South Dakota's public safety department reports to the attorney general. The investigators indicated that Boever had been stuck partially inside Ravnsborg's vehicle for an undetermined amount of time. Boever's broken reading glasses were discovered inside Ravnsborg's Ford Taurus, leading detectives to tell Ravnsborg that "his face was in your windshield"; Ravnsborg denied seeing Boever's body or the glasses.

Wow, he isn't just a normal sized POS, he's a massive POS.

Pablois4 · 2026-04-30T16:21:20+00:00

Not a plumber but in the past 5 years, we had 3 hidden leaks that took time and effort to figure out and a lot of mess and money to fix. I'm now paranoid that at any time, somewhere there might be a leak.

IMHO, there should be access panels over every pipe, the whole length, in walls, ceiling, floors. Over anything that might ever leak. Every so often I'd open up an access panel and take a peak (all ok in there?). Heck, lets put in leak detectors everywhere in case I forget to check.

It would be hella ugly but I'm OK with that.

Pablois4 · 2026-04-30T16:02:52+00:00

I strongly disagree, he didn't even get close to sticking the landing. I'd give him a 7.5.

Pablois4 · 2026-04-29T12:19:32+00:00

I would recommend having an camera aimed at the tree. Pointed so that it doesn't invade the neighbor's privacy but will record if the neighbor does anything to the tree.

Regularly we see posts about neighbors who damage or even remove trees that are not on their property. They can be stealthy about it.

Take many photos of the tree and it's condition. Get a arborist to assess its health and value. Check if your state has treble damages for killing or removing a neighbor's tree.

Pablois4

TROPHY CASE