American Idiot in the UK

If you haven't heard, there is a campaign in the United Kingdom to make the song American Idiot, by the band Green Day, number one on the UK charts to coincide with President Trump's visit.


Classic!

I'm laughing already but I'll love it if it actually hits number one!

The Big Stinky Flower

Thursday morning it was on the news that Olbrich Botanical Gardens had another corpse flower that was ready to bloom.  Yesterday morning they reported that it was in peak bloom, so while at work I decided I would stop by on the way home to see it and, of course, get pictures to share here.  I hear of this every few years, and they do have 4 of the plants so that makes sense because they only bloom every 7-10 years, I've just never taken the time to go see it before.

As I mentioned earlier, Olbrich has one of the 4 Buckys that are nearby so, while I had momentarily forgotten that fact, I couldn't miss it outside of the Bolz Conservatory, where the big stinky flower was.  This Bucky is simply titled 'Grow,' which is apt for where it is.  That's 3 Buckys down and only 82 more to go!  Realistically, we'll just have to wait and see how many I 'collect' by summer's end.  The next one will most likely be across the street from here at Olbrich Park.  Speaking of which, we have not been to the biergarten yet this year, but have heard that it is really very popular this summer.

Taken from Olbrich's website: Amorphophallus titanum (Titan Arum), also known as the Corpse Flower, will only bloom four to five times during its 40-year life. Titan Arum are best known for their unpleasant odor - comparable to rotting meat.  This particular Corpse Flower, affectionately called Mori (which is the Latin word for "death") is an offspring of the Big Bucky Corpse Flower at UW-Madison, and last bloomed at Olbrich in 2009. The flower will only last a few days before it closes.

When I arrived there was hardly a place to park.  I was hoping to beat the after work crowd but there was people everywhere, mostly in the display and gift shop areas.  It was a two dollar donation to get into the conservatory and the lady informed me before I paid that the bloom had closed about a half hour beforehand.  No matter, I was there so I was going to go see it.  Thankfully there wasn't the lines like she said was there during the day and the day before that so I was able to pretty efficiently get in, see it, smell it, get some good pictures and be on my way in about 15 minutes or so.  I have been in the conservatory before but it has been probably since the early to mid 90's, shortly after the conservatory was opened if I remember right, I've been outside in the gardens a little more often.  This visit was a good reminder to get back sooner, and we really have no excuse with it being easily within biking distance.  And in wintertime the conservatory would be a great place to go when you're missing summer.

I managed to take quite a few pictures in that short amount of time so there's lots more to see after the break!

Happy Halloween 2017

The large, bright moon was a good effect.

Trick or Treat!  I got into Halloween a little more this year.  I picked up a window covering that is backlit by your inside lights.  It came in two parts so I put in in the corner windows, and I did get a few compliments on it from friendly parents.  I also bought a mask to have fun with the kiddies.  I waited to get these things until Sunday so there wasn't much left out to choose from.  Oh, and I got candy - loads of candy.  Too much candy.  Anyone want some candy?  I'd say we got around 40 trick-or-treaters or so, not too bad.  I expect that number to grow over the next several years as the kids get bigger and more numerous in the neighborhood, but I could be wrong.  I answered the door all but once with my mask on, bending down to kid height.  Showed the spirit but I didn't make any kids run away screaming.

Unimpressed Hamish

After the break is me, in my scary mask!

56

Here's one of my favorite short stories to tell.  It's been a few years now, so don't ask for the site because I don't remember, but I took an online questionnaire that was supposed to tell me how long I had to live.  What the hell, I thought.

I sat and went through this whole quiz, well more than a dozen or so questions, and detailed.  I got done and it said 56.  What, I thought?  Certainly I'm healthier than this.  I called my wife in and showed her.  It's just spitting out a random number, she said.  So I had her do it.  It came out with 93 or 94, I don't remember exactly.

How can this be?  Do it again, she said, so I did.  I went through each question all over again and answered honestly and completely.  56.  Again.

So that's it.  I have 6 more years to live.  It's on the internet so it must be true, right?

May The Fifth Be With You

Happy Friday!

Thanks Jonco!

May The Fourth Be With You

For all you Star Wars geeks, here's the Star Wars Holiday Special that you all want to forget.



I do remember watching this on television in 1978 - and it was never to be re-aired.   (Of course I also remember seeing the original movie in the theater with my friends back in 1977.  I remember playing with imaginary light sabers, acting out the scenes with my friends behind the Dixon theater waiting for one or our parents to come pick us up, several times we went.)  I liked the original trilogy as a youngster, but the newer ones I've not really seen much of, except for the one with the original characters back.  And then I only got it for us to watch as a nostalgic novelty.  I'm just not into this kind of thing anymore but I thought posting this today might be somewhat original and funny.  Well, we all like what we like so whatever it is you may as well let your geek flag fly high!

Petcube Video

I just took this video through the Petcube app, the first time I tried the video part.  I think the video taken was just over a minute but the file is 45 seconds.  It seems to be sped up a bit, and there is an episode of pixels.  The laser isn't the easiest to maneuver with your finger and over wifi, but overall not a bad first try, I think, and Hamish would probably agree.

March This-And-Thats

Most all I've posted recently has been about the weather or my shoulder.  We've had warm spring days, cold winter days, snow, rain, thunderstorms and hail - all very recently though not necessarily all on the same day.  Thank goodness spring is coming, but officially it is already here.  We have plants coming up and I'd like to get out and take a few pictures but today is rainy and dreary, maybe tomorrow.  In the meantime, I have a few things on my mind so time to type them out!

• Just to get it out of the way, I had a cortisone shot in my left shoulder on Wednesday.  It's too early to know how well it works out, but I hope it gets better yet as the next day it was measurably worse.  It is starting to feel a bit better now but certainly not as it should.
• I mentioned spring so it may be time for my annual wish of getting bicycles to get about our side of town during our non-winter seasons.  I think I may actually follow through with it this year.  My wife would be content to walk, but I want to bike.  I feel there's a higher chance of me biking somewhere with her than walking.  I think that's because biking will take much less time than walking.
• I finally bought myself a cordless drill/screwdriver.  I've had the same corded drill since I was a teenager, and it still works wonderfully but it is a bother to keep chucking drill bits and screwdriver bits alternately when working on projects.  I bought it during the holiday sales late last year and, unfortunately, I haven't had an excuse to use it yet.  But it seems real cool!
• Last night the Badgers fell to the Florida Gators in the round of sixteen in the NCAA tournament.  It was an another exciting ride, watching them come together and get the wins when it counted.  Last night they lost by one point, at the buzzer, in overtime.  A quick and almost surgical finish to the game.  Most Badger fans were probably stunned, like me.  A few seconds after the late finish I picked up my jaw, turned off the channel and got on to other things.  I still can't make myself look up the highlights or stories yet today.
• Over the holidays we received a gift called the Amazon Echo Dot (thanks Mom and Dan!).  I set it up at home, but it was just a novelty.  We never really used it for anything, until recently.  I bought two outlets that connect to wifi and plugged in our living room lamps.  Now we turn on and off the lights by asking Alexa to do it, or I have an app that will turn them on or off from anywhere, individually or together.  Certainly nothing necessary, just a bit of fun and it makes the Dot more useful.  I've tried to think of other things we could automate in our home, but nothing else really makes a lot of sense, usefully or monetarily. 

That's all I can think of for now.  In the middle of writing this today my wife and I went out and about to a couple neighborhood places for food and drink.  Not very busy out today with the weather.   This is the kind of thing we could do on bikes during good weather.  It will happen this year - and soon!

Trump Catnip Toy

I was shopping Amazon for something totally unrelated a while ago and I saw this little trinket that brought me thoughts of Basil and Hamish shredding it - The Trump Catnip Toy!  It's brand new, we'll see how long it takes for it to fall apart...    :-)      Oh, and Happy Irish Day!



Video link here, email readers, if it doesn't transfer.  But stop by the website sometime, say Hi!

I'm a Liar

I know this is a farcebook kind of thing to do, but I resemble this cartoon!  Sorry!

Depressing Comics

Blue Witch happened to post some comics today and that reminded me that I just so happened to save two comics last night in a draft to possibly post today.  I would have totally forgotten and just deleted the draft later due to timeliness if I had not seen her post this evening.  Thanks BW!  Both cartoons are from yesterday and I found each oddly amusing:

From Cyanide and Happiness and Garfield.  All links are also in the right column.

Caturday! with Basil and Hamish

I promised a Caturday post earlier, so here it is!  Featuring our favorite cats that thankfully agree to live pretty much peacefully with us, Basil and Hamish!  I could have taken photos from old albums but I wanted to only post new, so here is what I came up with over the last week:

I came home early on Tuesday because I did not feel well.  All I needed to do is go to bed, but I waited a couple hours until I had to move them.  They take over the bed in the morning hours after we leave, it's where they sleep most of the day when we're at work, I believe.

If they're not enjoying their main cat tree in the living room they are usually enjoying their first cat tree out on the back porch, while weather permits, anymore.  They are lucky kitties with fine, tall cat trees that are kitty corners of the house with full windows!  Their summer days home alone, well, if I could only do what they do for one day....










Hamish usually occupies the upper part of their cat trees but Basil gets up there sometimes.




They are brothers but so different in body types, I think it's just more comfortable for the bigger Basil to stretch out on the larger lower levels of the newer cat tree in the front of the house.  The older cat tree that's now on the porch was absolutely perfect for the first few years, (I highly recommend it for it's height and steps for kittens,)  Basil has just outgrown it now, I think.  Hamish still hangs in the crow's nest often, when the porch is open.  It is not a heated porch but the sun helps nicely this time of year.


There's more pictures from earlier this week through tonight after the break, and captioned for my pleasure!

Also, at the end is one of my favorite cat stories, as told by George Clooney on Dennis Miller Live years ago.   It's worth it, really.

Trump v. Clinton

via Huffington Post

Cheers, Wisconsin, we’re No. 1!

This story has been out for about a week now, but I read this editorial this afternoon in today's edition of our local paper, The Wisconsin State Journal, while in the waiting room for our dentist after work today.  (Yeah, that was fun, too.  I might write about it later, but anyway.)  Our city of Madison is number 4, and our state of Wisconsin has 12 of the top 20 cities.  Twelve of the top 20 drunkest cities in all of America.  Surely nothing to be proud of... but that's not how we roll.  I hate to say it, kinda not really, but this editorial hits the nail square on the head.

BARABOO — The trouble with ridiculing Wisconsinites is we don’t realize we’re being put down. In fact, we take most insults as compliments.

We can be a backward lot. This explains why we call freezing January temperatures “fishing weather.”

It also explains why, when our neighbors to the south derisively dubbed us “cheeseheads,” we didn’t know enough to feel hurt. Instead, we embraced the nickname and started wearing foam cheese wedges on our heads. 

Wisconsinites accepted with that same lack of self-consciousness last week’s news that America’s Dairyland is home to more than half the drunkest cities in America. I wonder if people in Appleton, the city anointed drunkest of them all, are spilling out of the taverns and on to the streets, wearing foam fingers and chanting “We’re No. 1!”

Click the text for the whole article!  Written by Ben Bromley.

The Disappearing Contractor

I have been getting estimates for a roof and a porch project we are planning.  I had a meeting scheduled this evening, in fact.  It was a rather odd meeting.  I was going to leave this comment at their website, but didn't even trust giving them my information for that, but I also didn't want that writing to go to waste so here it is (making me write more):

- - - - - -

Strike number one, Crystal, at 608 286-xxxx, called 8 times without leaving a message.

Strike number two, after I finally called that number back and let her set up an appointment she made sure to say at the end of the call to make sure that my wife and I are both there.  That tells me they are going to want to leave with a signed deal, and be persistent about it.

Strike number three, after discussing my porch project to a befuddled representative, I said never mind, if that's not what you do then let's talk about the other project, a new roof, and we did.  He said he would get up there and get me a quote and went back to his car and left. 

I find this all rather funny, how about you?

You know, I don't even trust this website.  I shall not submit this to you, but perhaps call you out on my own site.

- - - - - -

From first shaking hands he acted like he was not told about the porch part of the equation.  It was not what he normally does, even though his business had 'remodeling' in the name (a local contractor affiliated with the larger company).  After he repeated again that this is not normally what he does I said well, then I wouldn't be inclined to hire you for it, let's talk about the roof then, and we did.  He said he was going to get his ladder to get on the roof and take measurements to get me a quote.  I wandered the back yard for a few moments picking at weeds, never did hear a ladder.  I walked over and looked up the driveway and he was gone.

Kate and I both were very surprised, bemused, and then even amused at the whole encounter.
Your Home Improvement Co is certainly not mine.
That's that, then.

Oh,

Oh, it also happens to be my 7th Blogday today.  I've had this site for seven whole years.  Mediocre at best as it is, I know.  But I think I've got it under control now, anyway.  At least the itching stopped...

Apetor's Spring 2016

Some crazy, cold-loving Norwegian up to his old tricks skating/swimming/skiing while drinking vodka.  I like this guy's videos.  Just consider what he's doing, then realize how good a video he made and edited of himself doing it.  Now how crazy is he?

Winter & Little Lulu

I have not posted much lately, but it is the time of winter that not a whole lot is going on.  November and December you still have good days (very much so this season!) so are still making things happen.  Then the daylight bottoms out and deep winter sets in.  Even days that you make plans something is more likely to happen to keep you in during winter.  Snowstorms, daylight, temperatures and sickness are all much bigger factors than other times of year.  Any one or combination can keep you holed up at home instead of being out dining, shopping or socializing.  Even walking around the yard is missed by now.

We had plans this afternoon but not feeling well and snowfall has kept us in again.  Yes, it is the time of year I start seriously longing for spring.

- - - - - Little Lulu Comic - - - - -

Blue Witch's comment on the thread for the last post spurred me into writing today.  Before that, I had not ever considered trying to see what the comic would be worth.  My wife tells me she thought about it but, with the tops of the cover and first page missing, she didn't mention it.  Like I said in that comment thread, that is probably due to being returned for credit by the seller.  I know they do that for newspapers still, I'm not sure about magazines or comics, but probably.  Regardless, even if it was fully complete I don't think it would have occurred to me to seek it's worth.  (Now if it was Superman or similar.... then I might have thought about the $$!)

Yesterday I went downstairs ready to dust and vacuum some more, even started briefly, but decided it was going to be more work than results.  My cleaning a couple weeks ago is sufficient for now.  When I do big basement cleaning again I will approach it better from the start and have it done much more efficiently.

I did read through most of the Little Lulu comics in the magazine I found, not quite finishing because, well, it was boring.  Most of the subject matter is pretty simple, and would easily be understood by kids today.  But, of course, this is a simpler form of entertainment for young kids and would not be able to compete in this era.  After reading I printed off my last post.  I used the email version because it was easier and had less clutter.  The paper was enough larger than the comic that I folded the two pages in half and placed them in the center of the comic book, just sticking out the top a little bit.  Using a mirror, I checked the other areas atop that air return and the only other thing I found was a clothespin (that I left where I found).

Then I put Little Lulu went back where I found her.  Back to where she lay since - I would guess - the late 1950's or maybe 1960's.   We will know it is there - and now you will, too - but we will not disturb it.  Maybe someday after we're gone - or moved - someone will find it and ponder it's journey as I did.  Or maybe someday someone will be doing work or cleaning and toss it in the bin without looking at it.

I will only know how it made me think and reflect on the early life of this comic, this house and the family that grew up here.  Putting it back may give someone else that opportunity.


Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day.

Cobwebbing Comic Find

Last weekend I spent a short time downstairs with the duster going after the cobwebs in the basement ceiling.  I thought I did a pretty good job until I went down there for something the other night and in the light of the bulbs, as opposed to the daylight streaming in earlier, there were many more cobwebs to see.  Enough for me to make a note on my to-do list to cobweb the basement after dark, specifically.  So that is what I went down to do last night.

I set up my bluetooth speaker so I could listen to one of my podcasts as I cobwebbed, and as I started I almost immediately saw the corner of something sticking out over one of the air returns.  I must have bumped it with the duster enough to make it visible to me.  I immediately recognized it as a thin magazine style reading material when I touched it.

It was a comic book.  A very old and dusty comic book of Marge's Little Lulu.  A 52 Page Comic Magazine, as stated on the cover.  The pages are beyond yellow and into brown shades of very old.  The tops of the cover and first page are missing, and it has been drawn on the covers by what would appear to be a young child practicing drawing stars.

Found on the air return, top right.

The latest date I can see, due to the top of the cover and first page missing, is 1954, listed on the bottom of the first page where it references the comics this compilation came from.  We don't know the exact year our house was built, but the old toilet was dated 1947.  If I remember right, the former owner raised 5 kids in this little house.  That would be unheard of these days in this amount of space, but her mother did live next door, we're told.  The house was empty for a year or more after she died, then we bought it in 2009.

It would be interesting to know the story of how this comic book got to be there, but I'll probably never know.  In fact, what am I going to do with it?  Maybe I'll just read it and put it back for someone else to discover after my time.  Then they may wonder about it like I am now.

Nine Fingered Scoakat

This just made me actually laugh out loud, and why I am posting and writing about it now.  I do feel a new This-And-Thats post coming, but until then...     Thanks Jonco over at B&P!

I've known several 'digitally impaired' people, especially from when I was younger and worked in various construction jobs, and then eventually a truss plant slash lumber yard.  I saw the older guys that were missing partial and even whole fingers.  You couldn't miss it.  Sometimes they had good stories and good humor about it, sometimes not.  I started out in the truss plant as a grunt that worked on a press, swinging a hammer for a living.  And over the next almost decade I learned almost every press, every forklift and every sawyer job that was to be done.  Alas, back injuries and pride did me in at that job.  Pain can provide a very motivating, yet cloudy view.  Regretful, but physically it was a relief and in my best long term interests.  Mentally, I loved that job and I wish I could have done it forever.

Now, I used to know how to use a lot of saws when that was then.  The biggest saws I've run were six bladed beasts over forty feet long and could cut up to three angles on each end of a twenty foot 2 by 10, maybe more, if need be.  Thankfully we never much needed - or wanted - to test it's extremes.  Most cuts were easier and on 2 to 20 foot 2 by 4's, sometimes 2 by 6's.  And there was yet an even a bigger, more advanced saw there that I never did get to run.  I never came close to losing a finger, but I've known a couple people that it has happened to, or had known, one I never saw him again - he never came back to work.  But he had no business running that saw, we all knew he was scared of it.

These days I have what I need for home projects:  a table saw, a circular saw, a jig saw, a hand saw, a pruning saw, all I need is a chain saw - and don't laugh, it would have it's uses for me!  I still have all my fingers.  Maybe my odds would go up because of all the saws I use and have used, but I would like to think experience makes that less likely.

Now watch, I just jinxed myself.

Signed,
Nine-Finger-Scoakat

P.S.  My newest toy is a 2 gallon 125 psi air compressor.  I'm not sure how that may help me lose a finger but, hell, watch me be the one to find out!