Slightly cooler, maybe some rain, maybe. Yesterday was nice. Hot, sunny, but nice compared to Hell or Cincinnati. Didn’t do any work in the attic though, I’m not a mad dog, or Englishman.
Did do some stuff around the house. Not as much as I’d hoped. Had some interruptions that knocked me off track and limited what I was willing to start. Did get the coffee machine fixed, so that will leave the kitchen and go to the ebay pile. Now to do the same with the other, bigger one.
D1 has a birthday sometime in this last week or next, so we’re going to do some birthday activities today, while her friends are available. With the school year ending this week, and the start of summer activities, there won’t be much time to get all of them in one place. There is a bunch of stuff for her sitting around until her birthday party and getting that cleared up will help with the stuff in the house too.
I forgot to mention my trip to the grocery store on Friday. Lots of gaps on the shelves. One thing they were out of is the eye drops I use. I’ve got more in the stacks but like to replace what I use when I use it. I don’t have to try to find a new supply right away if I have them on the shelf. That’s why we prep. I also didn’t see as many discount coupons, and the stuff I bought wasn’t on sale. I saved only about 2.5% vs my normal 10-12% by using store coupons and closeout discounts. If this turns into a trend, we’re in even bigger trouble.
This past week I spent a lot on eating out, and prepared meals. Normally I try to cook most nights but between school stuff and general malaise, I wasn’t able or wasn’t willing to cook dinner. The difference in cost is getting to be quite large. I’ve started pulling back by preference but if this keeps up, we’ll NEED to pull back. Since we are in good shape, I can’t imagine what people less well off or well prepared are faced with. IDK if they are continuing to spend out of habit, and eating up savings or going into debt, or if they are faced with pulling way back, and suddenly (like the lady I mentioned previously that had to choose a hamburger helper meal for the first time). For most people I think there comes a point where it suddenly and undeniably comes to their attention, and they HAVE to make big changes, or go broke. What are you guys seeing? Are you cutting spending? Is it out of prudence or need?
It’s late to start stacking, because costs have gone up and choices are down. With that, I’m tempted to start eating down my stacks to save money, but for what and when? I still think it is a good idea to be building up reserves and the time to be using them is yet to come. So keep stacking, when and what you can, and let me know when you think the time is right to start using what you are setting aside.
nick
oh yeah, the title. Second to last time I was up at the BOL, I really didn’t expect to see camels mating. But I did. And yeah, it really is as awkward as you think it must be.
Yesterday was the local traditional observance (one of only two in London, I heard), and it was the first time that I haven’t turned out do do the sound since the last millennium. A new faction of the organising committee arranged for a different guy to do the task. And he did a (mostly) serviceable job. Not the way I’d have done it (obviously) but good enough for a first attempt. I shouldn’t criticise, but if you’re amplifying two different people 30 feet apart, you need two mics, not one passed from one to the other. Not enough gain on the mics, either.
There was a problem with the pianist for the dance music, too. Last year’s lady, who did a serviceable job, had to be admitted to hospital on short notice, so they had to find a replacement. Which they did, and very good he was, too.
Be it noted here, I’m not objecting. I’ve been saying for years that I’m not going to be able to do the job much longer. After all, at 0x4A years old, lummoxing half-a-hundredweight of kit about is not as easy as it was.
But even so, I was still invited to the after-celebration tea, and Pat, the chairwoman of the organising committee, was kind enough to extend a standing invitation for future years.
All in all, a reasonably successful handover, and I can leave the task in good hands for future years.
G.
While I believe that Rafael Edward is vulnerable in 2024, especially with Trump at the top of the Texas ballot, the common mistake his opponents make is that Cruz is an empty suit like Cornyn.
No word on the identity of the reporter.
The missing merchandise on the shelves is probably over in Curbside. That’s how it is in our store, which added ~ 25% more floor space for Curbside as part of a remodel which ran concurrently with the start of the “pandemic”.
The German Grocery Getters pull up over there as of late.
I can’t blame HEB for offering free Curbside since they’re going to data mine those buying habits and learn a lot – if the monetary price is free, the product is you — but a lot of theory still has to be written about Virtual Queuing, which even Disney is learning the hard way.
I still find it interesting that people panic buy flour. And HEB’s private label detergent has been unobtainium for several months at our local store. Store management says they get shipments, but Curbside cleans the supply out quickly.
Should have used it on a Wednesday.
Yah, I’ve noticed. Can’t hardly help but notice. Been bitten by sharp week-on-week increases a couple times.
I’ll often pick my daughter up from school for one reason or another and not-infrequently will also pick up other kids who live roughly near us.* Because teens are always hungry, I’ll either stop at a grocery store on the way home and let them pick out snacks to eat in the car while I get family groceries, or sometimes stop for fast food. A week or two ago it was over $30 for chicken strips, fries, and sodas for two girls. Ouch!
I’m sure that the state minimum wage of $14.20, no matter how unskilled or unmotivated the laborer, is partly to blame.
* School is 17 miles away for us, 28-35 minutes by car, most of an hour by bus. I drive a minivan, so there’s easily room for four kids without squishing three in the back seat and not being able to fit all of their large backpacks in the trunk. Plus, I’m a safe driver, unlike the other parent who drives a minivan. Add in the snacks that I always provide, and I’m by far the preferred chauffeur.
Agreed. I’m hanging on to a stack of greenbacks, because I still expect that USD will be more useful than gold or silver, but I’d rather have stuff in my physical possession. I’m more than maxed out on food, measuring by the amount of stored food that we can eat and keep rotating the older stuff. Still working on acquiring other useful tools and consumables, like the welding gear. More importantly, continuing to work on skills that’ll be useful and remunerable; I work for a services company** so in the event of a bad downturn I’ll need another way to provide.
Daughter is interested in acquiring some useful skills – welding, metal machining, electrical work – more because she’s interested than because she could earn a living if the economy falters or she can’t cut it as an engineer. Eh, better than nothing; we can work with that.
I’m definitely not where I’d like to be in terms of hooking up with people who’d be useful in times of trouble. I never see anyone in the neighborhood doing car work other than minimal stuff. So far as I can tell, I’m the only one who’s ever taken apart a washing machine to fix it. I haven’t talked to anyone whom I’d trust to help guard the neighborhood if urban scum came looting. The obvious solution is to move but there are some difficulties around that.
** In fact, I work for a company which provides services to make other service companies more efficient.
—–
Bah. Took me over an hour to write that. The previously-mentioned challenges with constant interruptions and distractions still apply.
@mediumwave, yes to Lizzo… she “flaunts her fabulous curves” often enough in the DailyMail. Of course, just scrolling down the page, and watching the right side, you can easily see the truth of what their audience likes, and the AI seems to be right on target.
In re the women of the right side: Bimbos, trollops, what my parents’ generation would’ve called tramps.
a reasonably successful handover, and I can leave the task in good hands
–@geoff, in terms of your event, but also life in general, that is better than you can usually expect. Sound reinforcement looks so simple, but to do it well takes experience, knowledge, and the ability to hear what needs to be heard. When I was touring with musicians I always felt like a cheat when I had to do sound as well as lights and management, since I was weak in that area. Turns out, I was better at it than most, just because I tried to be better.
@Greg, yeah the flour shelf was empty. Ramen too. The whole store is being re-done, so some stock levels are low because they didn’t want to move it when they moved the shelves, but mostly there are just gaps. Like not having 1 quart heavy whipping cream. They had half quarts. They only had the HEB brand though, and they used to carry “Promise” as well. Large HEB eggs, in 18 pack filling the whole display unit, instead of just the lower part…
or she can’t cut it as an engineer.
@stevef, in my experience, she’ll make a much better engineer, and they’ll love her for it, if she’s ever done ANY hands on work. Just knowing how the machines work, and what it’s like to do some of the operations will help enormously. And there is a degree path, Engineering Technology, for those who like the work but don’t like the math (or can’t do it) that is a more hands on approach, and preps you for a career working with engineers. Or at least it did when I was in school. Youngest is fascinated by blacksmithing (and blade-smithing) watching all the forging shows. I would dearly love to get her in a shop class.
@mediumwave – IDK, given the ‘me too’ movement if they are actually tramps in that sense, but in the old days they would have been. I would call them ‘attention wh0res’ rather than actual hoors, since they are selling access to themselves for what they are, rather than what they’ve done. Given the crossover with OnlyFans, some of them are getting pretty close to actual hoors… gotta love the sexual revolution, and it’s benefits for men. For ladies, not so much.
—————————–
Partly cloudy, but there is light outside. Half the cup of coffee is inside me. Rest of the pack is still asleep, or at least abed. Back let me know that I needed to NOT be in bed much longer, despite my fondest desire.
stuff to do, stuff to do…
n
You can probably find a local-ish blacksmith who’d let her watch for an hour or two, maybe even help. “Help”. At worst you’d need to provide an apron, gloves, boots, and hearing and eye protection.
If she likes it, why not build a small forge at the BOL? It seems to be easy enough to make a crude one and not too expensive. A preteen/early teen girl might not have the muscle to work iron or steel but could work with tin or copper.
I’m vaguely interested in blacksmithing and blade forging but in practice haven’t done it. I’ve ground a leaf spring into blades, but that’s not hardly the same thing.
A forge is on my long term project list….
I’ve got the fire brick, and could make a small table top forge. I came this close to getting an old farm forge a few years ago.
I did consider starting her working cold with softer metals. Copper needs constant annealing but the resulting objects look cooler than aluminum. Silver is pricey. Unfortunately ‘studio artist’ doesn’t pay very well, unless you get a university gig… but it’s a great hobby.
n
For a writer with over 500 articles on DM, this chick manages to avoid conveying any useful info…
Texas man, 24, is arrested for the murder of 20-year-old Madeline Pantoja after she disappeared on a night out with friends
Not likely that he’s actually a “Texas man” other than temporarily living in Texas. Never actually states if he is the ex she was supposedly arguing with or not. No info about him at all, but judging by the tat, history of poor choices at least and habitual crim is pretty likely. Victim is both 20 yo and 21 yo… somehow. And she was home from her ‘night out’ before she disappeared, not grabbed from a bar or party.
Nice auto correct of ‘scouring’ to ‘souring’ too.
n
Repousse’ and engraving are pretty cool too, and neither requires much of an investment to start.
n
@mediumwave- here’s another example of the ‘new’ beauty standard…
Brow down! Unibrow model Sophia Hadjipanteli dazzles in rhinestone gown as she attends Killers Of The Flower Moon premiere at Cannes
It’s an F’ing freak show.
n
This is what we are importing…
important trafficking routes – those would be routes ACROSS THE BORDER INTO THE US.
I used to go to Rosarito Beach when I lived in Cali. It’s about half way to Ensenada. Had roommates who would camp on the beach in Ensenada and surf. Not for all the money in the world now.
nick
Get on Abebooks.com and look for “Metalwork and Enamelling” by Herbert Maryon, erstwhile of the British Museum. A bit olde-worlde these days, but still accessible to a teen. My niece, who has a penchant towards jewelry and metalworking, loves it. I took her to see the precious metals exhibit at the National Museum of Ireland recently, which includes several of the objects that Mr Maryon restored. Astounding workmanship, both his and that of the ancient masters.
The local third rate Asian market had no lack of ramen when I went in looking for milk candy the other night, on our way back from an event in town.
H-Mart is hit or miss, but hipsters like that store and I’ve seen Amish women in there near closing time shopping for the phone app delivery service for locals still into pandemic Kabuki… name of the service escapes me.
@SteveF
“Daughter is interested in acquiring some useful skills – welding, metal machining, electrical work – more because she’s interested than because she could earn a living if the economy falters or she can’t cut it as an engineer. Eh, better than nothing; we can work with that.”
If engineering involves anything that looks like design, fabrication, or repair, having some knowledge of the skilled trades is useful, particularly if you need to communicate directly. Doing that communication also can get interesting opportunities to see things from manufacturing lines to field repairs.
Minimum wage, no. Wages are higher here, the food better quality, and less expensive.
Quality of labor? Maybe. However, I do believe that there are a lot of crazy profits. McDonalds gross profit last quarter was up 10% last quarter, compared to 2022.
Maybe the question is: why do people pay high prices for low-end food?
Capitalism is a great system, but it requires guard rails in the form if regulation. Minimum wage ought to be high enough to allow a person to live. In any big city, that’s probably at least $25/hour, plus benefits.
Minimum wage ought to be high enough to allow a person to live. In any big city, that’s probably at least $25/hour, plus benefits.
— nope. Minimum wage is not designed nor intended to be capable of supporting a household. It’s designed to protect against exploitation and child labor, not coincidentally supporting higher wages for union workers.
Employees have to provide more benefit than they cost, that’s the only way a business stays in business. Rising wages create a spiral effect of rising costs, because companies pass costs along to their customers, which the marketplace should adjust to naturally, which is WHY it costs $25/hr for employees in NYFC. Also why there are so many illegal asian slaves working in NYFC.
Artificially mandating wages interferes and distorts markets, creating more cost spiraling than a more natural and gradual process.
In a country like the US, the difference in cost of living is so extreme, no national rate would make sense. The .gov recognizes this with different per diem rates for different cities both in what they give their own employees, and what they allow companies to give without tax penalties.
As a practical matter, no one pays minimum wage anymore, except maybe for tipped employees like bartenders and wait staff, and then the minimum is MUCH lower than for non-tipped employees. Our local McDs advertises $10.50/hr and can’t find staff. Jack in the Box pays $13 and has some openings. In N Out pays more than that, has benefits, and liberal work rules and has no problem staffing with smart dedicated (and white) friendly employees.
for comparison- divide by 2000 to get hourly.
n
@nick
“Engineering Technology, for those who like the work but don’t like the math (or can’t do it) that is a more hands on approach, and preps you for a career working with engineers. Or at least it did when I was in school.”
The use of math has changed in the last fifty years. I saw the beginnings with the introduction of the 4-function calculator, then the engineering calculator, then the programmable calculator, then the micro computer. I was in corporate when the most powerful engineering tool came in every mornng in distinctive backpacks–the FatMac with a Hyperdrive, then the Mac Plus.
Even then, you had to get by it, but seldom, if ever, used much of it after that. The main thing was to identify the nature of the problem and use the right equation that was already derived for you. So many things are canned, now, and solved–as in an acceptable solution–through finite element techniques that would have been impossibly slow and expensive not too long ago.
” Youngest is fascinated by blacksmithing (and blade-smithing) watching all the forging shows. I would dearly love to get her in a shop class.”
I’ve watched enough of the shows to know that there are a lot of people using expensive equipment with little knowledge. Get her a copy of Wayne Goddard’s $50 Knife Shop (2016 revised ed.)
Knife making has also come a long way in the last 50 years. Lot’s of companies doing excellent work at every price point. ca. 1982 my dad asked if I could find some 440C bar stock. The 440C was in favor by a lot of amateur knife makers at the time, but bar stock was in limited supply and unobtainium for a while. (The C is for cutting, so most stock was round for the lathe). Now the variety of steel alloys is staggering, and sharp out of the box for $100 is better than most can do with long practice.
I had a client a while back that had a simple flat fixture made of 6061 aluminum. The most common flat plate is rolled and has a temper designated as T651, equivalent to T6, which makes it pretty darn tough. Small shop machined the fixtures and they warped a few thousandths. My experience with aluminum is limited, but I was able to identify and confirm the problem in a couple minutes and confirm that the proposed solution would not work. Heck of it is, they had a process oven that could have been used to pre-treat the aluminum blanks before machining and avoid the problem. No one asked the right questions.
ADDED: If I were younger I would find a technical college that had a gubsmithing program.
Ordered the metalwork book. I did check my shelf first 🙂 It’s exactly the kind of thing I’d pick up for myself if I saw it. I have The Colouring, Bronzing, and Patination of Metals Book by Richard Hughes but not that one. (and yes I’ve got it in hardcover, and no, I’m not listing it on amazon.)
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opened the old pc I picked up from the curb. It DID have a SoundBlaster card in it, but unfortunately not one of the super desireable ones. ISA cards bring good money! search vintage computing on ebay for ‘sound blaster’ then sort solds by highest to lowest. If you’ve got an old white box machine that still boots, you could be in the money… worth checking at $500.
Anyhoo- the DVD drive is worth $25, so hey, free money.
n
That is one salient point that is apparently missed by the clowns in congress that want to increase the tax on corporations. Corporations don’t pay taxes. The purchasers of the corporation’s products and/or services pay the taxes.
Meanwhile California is taxing corporations enough to cause the companies to leave the state. Yet the fools in the California legislature cannot comprehend why a company would leave.
One of my favorite youtube blacksmiths goes to a glass blowing workshop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72XnzegIDSY
the plasticity of glass always amazes me.
n
I’ve held McDonalds stock for nearly 19 years, and I just reconciled about 10 years of dividend reinvestment activity into my DRIP account. My average annual growth was ~ 6.7% over the entire holding period, not counting the taxes paid on the dividends which would make the number lower. Of course, I dollar cost average the reinvestment purchase lots.
That isn’t terrible considering the dividend is very dependable, but that lags the version of the S&P 500 numbers which the financial press parrots from Warren Buffett. The profit picture for the company is far from “crazy”.
McDonald’s is about consistency and convenience with a system that delivers a decent but not outstanding product.
While in Orlando last month, we hit the future of McDonalds with the newly rebuilt store on the Disney property. Visible workers were few and far between in the dining room, with most of the kitchen activity out of sight. I assume it was highly automated. In theory, the building generated its own electricity from solar panels on the roof, but I can’t imagine that being truly enough to run deep fryers and AC in a Florida summer.
McDonald’s is about consistency and convenience with a system that delivers a decent but not outstanding product.
– that’s what it was founded for, so a traveler could walk in, order, and know EXACTLY what they would get.
Kinda like how Domino’s doesn’t sell pizza, they sell delivery. The fast delivery, consistently 30min or less, is why people buy the product, not because it’s the best pizza. Gino’s or one of the other Chicago pizza chains sells the experience, the pizza is just how it’s delivered.
Rule number one in sales is know what you are really selling.
n
Bud lite F’d it up because advertising babe thought they were selling BEER. There are hundreds if not thousands of beers available, most of them better in some way than Bud Lite. What they were selling was a lifestyle, (used to be one that would get you the hot babes at a party) one where you can drink beer but still somehow be “fit”, one where 12 oz of one liquid fills you up less than 12 oz of another liquid, one where there is camaraderie and shared sportsmanship, and manly hanging out with your bros. By associating themselves with s’he, especially with the falseness and squick of the endless “girlhood”, they are perceived by their customers as selling THAT. And Bud Lite drinkers overwhelmingly don’t want to buy the trans/pedo/over the top weirdness of what’s his name.
The Dave Gingery books have a lot of wonderful entry points for the diy and aspiring engineer types:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/David-J.-Gingery/author/B001K83CQ0?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&tag=ttgnet-20
p.s. And preppers.
Like a lot of C-suites in Corporate America, there is a great deal of sex happening between the senior management and the lower level employees at InBev. Someone higher in the ranks wanted to get naked with the “advertising babe” and a lapse of judgement was the result.
Long term, InBev is so huge that it won’t mean as much as it would have when Anheuser Busch was still an independent US company with fewer brands as well as theme park revenue to worry about.
>> Anyone got any way to read files from Q&A Write? It’s only 35 years old.
@nick, a quick dive into the googles led me here: https://quick-view-plus.en.softonic.com/?ex=DINS-635.1
No indication of the ‘trial version’ limitations. Quick View Plus is a commercial version of the circa Windows 95 Quick View program: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_View
Current(?) home: http://www.avantstar.com/downloads
Certainly a YMMV situation.
As to the readability of the discs, before you invest in a USB floppy drive, perhaps the PCs at your local public library or an internet cafe might still have floppy drives.
Good luck!
ADDED: Oh, there was also this: https://archive.org/details/symantec-q-a-write-3.0-for-windows-3.0-1993-04-english-3.5-1.44-mb
>> oh yeah, the title
Should have used it on a Wednesday.
Obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LtjzQaFZ3k
I forgot about forensics toys like Quick View Plus. Something in Caine might be usable on Linux to view the older format.
https://www.caine-live.net/
My son went back to work at a local fast casual pizza place this summer. He’s making $13 an hour plus tips, which will average out to $15/hour. This will (hopefully) be the last summer of this. Next year he will co-op somewhere either spring spring or summer.
@Alan, thanks, that is way more than I expected. Maybe all the old data won’t be lost after all.
I will add it to the pile o stuff to do in the office.
n
Inflation report from Sam’s club – a four pack of Bush’s “Grillin’ Beans”: $9.
That was the price for a 12 pack not that long ago.
One of the local Sam’s gave up on carrying 2 L Coke products, but our usual store has pared down to just Coke and Sprite.
Maybe. Where I currently work, we are making money thanks to ChatGPT, but we are the only division making money, and every group is under a hiring freeze.
He shouldn’t burn bridges at the pizza place when the summer is up.
For some perspective, I was making $13/hr in LA in the early 90s as a skilled carpenter/welder/crew chief.
My skilled AV day labor now gets about $100/hr for short notice jobs, $400 for half day, 800 for full day.
I think my plumber bills at $150/hr with a 2 or 3 hour minimum. He’s probably lucky to see ⅓ of that in his bank account.
n
Headed to Costco for cake. Will walk the aisles too.
n
The Orlando Pizzeria Uno at the Crossroads shopping center was the busiest in the chain until eminent domain shuttered the location a couple of years ago.
The experience there was Not Disney. We fed our kids there multiple times. I don’t think what they served really mattered as long is it was kid friendly, but the pizza was decent.
All of the restaurants in that shopping center did well even if the Goodings had disintegrated into an overpriced tourist ripoff store. Now the land sits empty until the DeSantis/Iger feud is settled.
To be fair, real Chicago deep dish pizza done right is work. We’ve spent the last two Christmas Eve afternoons experimenting with a Giordano’s crust recipe, and the next attempt should get it nailed down. This past year’s effort made better leftovers than when the pizza first came out of the oven.
$25 for a pizza at Giordanos? Cheap for the amount of effort involved.
I saw a 5 foot long rattlesnake on the Missouri River here in Montana Friday afternoon. It crossed the river after our 12 foot rowboat went past it. Very graceful. I was ready to beat it to death with my fishing rod. Then our guide told us he was carrying a 10 mm pistol in case of bear or crazy people.
We put three people into those 12 foot rowboats. Front fisher, guide on oars, back fisher. I always catch more fish in the back. Plus the guide does not see all my constant mistakes.
It got hot, 88 F on the river today. Ok with wind, not ok with zero wind.
Gotta refresh my mind every once in a while about why I don’t do things. Like go to Costco on a Sunday afternoon…
Crowded. Whyte ppl definitely in the minority, by a lot. Was going to work on learning some mandarin but I think hindi might be a better choice.
All the sneeze guards are finally down.
Prices were ok. no big increases but they were already high. More ‘value’ choices in some items (beef and pork) fewer choices for other items. Like rice and flour. They still had multiple choices, and prices were the same, but it’s a reduced selection from a couple years ago.
More korean products than last time.
More cheap wine.
They had eggs and milk products this time.
And charmin blue was on sale for $20/ bundle. Used to be $16-18.
And while it was crowded, it wasn’t packed like the lot had suggested.
n
Don’t watch “Cocaine Bear” at the hotel on pay-per-view. Wait until you get home.
That movie was not nearly as fun as it should have been.
See if the new season of “Botched” is running. That used to be our Summer travel cable indulgence of choice, but they didn’t film a new season last year.
In the Department of Who Gives A S#!t things, I’m about two cups shy of finishing a 10# bag of sugar. I opened the bag a month ago. I have /a lot/ of hummingbirds this year. They showed up about 10 days early.
Cheap entertainment or easily amused? Your call.
I tossed some Hill Country Fare fajitas on the grill yesterday. Had nice char in spots from grease flares. Over cooked by about the time it takes to go from grill to kitchen and back for a pan to put the meat in and get around Buddy the Beagle. My error. They turned out great. $4.47 a pound I think and freeze or use by Dec 10, 2014.
Unless they have changed in the last couple of years, HEB’s Hill Country Fare brand of fajitas are skirt steak. HEB brand of fajitas are not skirt steak, more like “pot roasts sliced thin” and cost more, too. The meat tastes and chews different.
Made a batch of guacamole too. The way I learned from the folks across the street when we first moved to Texas. Smash them up with a fork. Black pepper, lemon or lime juice, bottled is fine, or use a fresh orange or a grapefruit, add a good sprinkle each of garlic and onion powders. Three fingers of chili powder.* It was a little thick so I added a few tablespoons of picante sauce. Mix well, cover and in the fridge for an hour or so to get happy. Good stuff.
*That’s take the sprinkling screen off of the container, stick your index finger in and what stays on the first ¾ inch of your finger goes into the guac. Call it a heaping teaspoon plus a bit more.
My new rule of thumb about Charmin Blue is that it is roughly the market spot price for an ounce of silver, currently around $22.
The “shortage” during the pandemic seriously damaged the supply chain for paper products.
Again, no apologies forthcoming from those who stirred up the emotions.
And I still see Good Germans proudly wearing their armbands -er- masks.
BTW, McDonald’s corporate is not in the business of selling food. The parent company is in the real estate management business.
The current “book value” of the company based on the stock price is grossly exaggerated in that light, and some of the franchisees have struggled as of late since they are responsible for actually making and selling the food.
Very few franchisees can defy corporate and survive. The poster child is the “Worlds Largest” McDonalds on the corner of International Drive and Sand Lake in Orlando, but the parent company lost control there a long time ago.
Several of the talking head guests on the Sunday morning political shows all had similar comments about Ron D. Santos, saying he’s entering the race too late and that his continued anti-Disney antics will not help his chances. Gotta stack more popcorn!
Tyler Durden cowardice protecting a mainstream source on BillG who actually did some … reporting! Strange but true.
What’s interesting – and didn’t make the story– is that Gates stepped down as Microsoft Chairman in 2014, on the same day that Ballmer the Monkey Boy resigned as CEO.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bill-gates-blackmailed-jeffrey-epstein-over-affair-russian-bridge-player
And at the G7 press conference Plugs decided that the Repubs want us to reach the debt limit since regardless who’s at fault, voters will hold him responsible and he’ll lose the election.
Why do they let him out of his basement?
Had a nice chat with an old mentor whilst sitting on my porch swing enjoying the cool evening. Family is returning in moments though, so I better get the ice cream and cake ready…
A few drops fell on me while I was out, but it never got any worse and soon stopped.n
on the same day that Ballmer the Monkey Boy resigned as CEO.
– to deny Epstein’s handlers any leverage?
n
The NAACP announced a travel advisory for Florida within the last few days, advising against visiting the state because of the Governor’s extreme positions.
All went according to the plan. The Sunday shows are usually “put to bed” in an editorial sense on Friday afternoon.
Also, Disney owns ABC and This Week with George Suffleupagus so you had to expect pushback in that outlet at a minimum after a week of non-stop dismal news for The Mouse.
DeSantis’ announcement for President is widely expected this week.
Monkey Boy had issues of his own separate from Gates. The “disaster” of Windows 8 provided a lot of cover for Ballmer’s exit.
Which reminds me — I downloaded updates for the Windows 8 partition on my 2010 MacBook Pro this morning, and I got a big “blue screen of death” message stating that Windows 8 is no longer supported by Microsoft.
Fine. Just install the updates. I’ll get the death screen again in three months.
>> Daughter is interested in acquiring some useful skills – welding, metal machining, electrical work – more because she’s interested than because she could earn a living if the economy falters or she can’t cut it as an engineer. Eh, better than nothing; we can work with that.
Probably preaching to the choir but never know who’s lurking. Under useful skills don’t forget at least the bssics of plumbing and HVAC. Re cars, it’s hard these days to get past the very basics without specialized tools and diagnostic computers. At the very least, she should know how to change the oil and jump-start a dead battery and change a tire. The other issue with car repairs is how tightly things are packed under the hood.
I have come to the conclusion that something nefarious has happened to my goldfish. For these last few years he’s lived in the ‘water feature’ in front of the house. Now he’s gone. Given that he’s a fat foot long, I can’t see a cat or possum getting him. Do people steal fish? I’m not looking forward to watching hours of video.
n
@Ray Thompson
“Meanwhile California is taxing corporations enough to cause the companies to leave the state. Yet the fools in the California legislature cannot comprehend why a company would leave.”
Chicago mayor is talking about imposing a financial transaction tax. No authority, but the fashion serms to be to break the law with impunity until a court eventually stops you.
The Chicago Mercantile exchange is having none of it. According to their president’s statement, the y own no real estate and their leases have escape clauses. Be interesting.
re: Goldfish predator
My money is on raccoons.
I had a friend who raised chickens, and raccoons cleaned out her entire coop in one night.
ITGuy 1998
“My son went back to work at a local fast casual pizza place this summer. He’s making $13 an hour plus tips, which will average out to $15/hour. This will (hopefully) be the last summer of this. Next year he will co-op somewhere either spring spring or summer”
suggest that he take a good look at his classes next year and find one of two that he can get a leg up on. Lot’s of internet resources for math, for example. A talk with next year’s instructors will confirm the textbooks. Get the syllabus, will favorably impress the profs. End of spring is best time to buy and save money. Take a look at the math and study up on the techniques.
@Nick
“Do people steal fish? I’m not looking forward to watching hours of video.”
In the 80’s I would have asked if you had any new SE Asian neighbors.
They want the court fight. All it takes is one victory decided in a city’s favor at the Federal court level to establish precedent which could quickly escalate to regional or even national law.
The most dangerous experiment in recent memory was Seattle passing income tax in a state where a Constitutional prohibition against income tax existed.
Fortunately, that was squashed at the state court level.
Nick, a goldfish a foot long is a koi.
A concern for me. There are who-knows-how-many raccoons in the forest and we see them in our yard at dawn and dusk. The chicken coop has latches on the doors but raccoons have picky little hands and might be able to get in. I need to improve the latches. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks, he is. He’s going to do some math later in the summer to refresh and get back in gear. I’m past the point of directing him though. He has to make his own way, and he’s doing a fine job, making Dean‘s list both semesters.
He knows next semester will be hard – Calc III, Physics II, Statics, and Thermo I. I’m all for him just relaxing for a little bit and enjoy the break.
Ouch! I never put that much tech into one semester. With that load, he’ll be lucky if the Math class keeps up with the others.
Being in Computer Science, I never had Thermo, and Statics was limited to what was covered in the Physics classes. Even so, I remember learning something in Calc class and applying it the next week in Physics.
Well that was unusual. I went looking for more of the “Richard Castle” Nikki Heat books on CD. They were more expensive on ebay than used on amazon… I got two more for the price of one on ebay. Weird.
n
statics and thermo were weed out classes at the Harvard of the Midwest, where I attended for two years. They are the reason I’m not an engineer. I got weeded out.
I was much more interested in drinking beer and trying to score with girls than studying and the math didn’t come easy for me anymore.
n
“Calc III, Physics II, Statics, and Thermo I.”
Light reading. /sarc
Strongly suggest moving the good intentions forward and getting started on the Calc III. Lot’s of good online resources. Yeah, I know you can’t tell ’em, am I know the prereqs allow the schedule, but knowing the math better will make all three easier.
Neck tattoo. They always have a neck tattoo.
NAACP Warns African Americans to Avoid Florida Due to Perceived “Hostility to Black Americans, People of Color, and LGBTQ Individuals”
– Floridians rejoice…
n
Do you get herons in your part of the world? They are the principal culprit for missing goldfish here.
@denis, we do occasionally get herons, but not usually in the yard by the house…
mostly in the field with the creek running thru it.
n