Text from my direct report at 7am Saturday morning: “Please call me as soon as possible!!!”

I call immediately. Him: “I can’t talk right now, when is a good time to call you back?” Me:
“Just call me when you can, omg.”

Him: Calls me three hours later to take 20 minutes explaining why he needs an afternoon off two months from now.

Me: “This could have been a text, Pablo.”

Can’t tell you how disappointed I am that isn’t just a chart of increasingly tubby kittens.

Cognitive behavioral therapy workbooks work almost as well without a therapist as with one. You just have to have the self discipline to actually do it.

Gestation? They will birth the peanuts?

https://www.petmd.com/dog/nutrition/can-dogs-eat-peanuts (answer: yes, but raw peanuts can have mold, so cooked is better. They are a high fat, “sometimes treat”)

That’s really neat, thanks for explaining!

OH, I get it. The pick up price is the purchase price. That’s pretty clever. Does that mean the trash collectors have to pick every bag up by hand and glance at the contents? How many categories of trash/bag are there?

Interesting! Does the curbside program bill you by weight as well? That sounds labor intensive, compared to here where you just rent the $small, $$medium or $$$large bin and pay quarterly regardless of use. And recycling and composting are free.

That is neat! But since it charges you to put things in, wouldn’t that encourage people to just throw their food in the trash? Or is that discouraged somehow?

The county I live in (Northern California) requires that household food waste go into the curbside compost bin, or home compost. They do random checks to make sure you haven’t put any food in the landfill bin and you can get a fine.

It gets turned into compost for landscaping, along with the yard waste, not food though.

PDX = Portland, Oregon

Essential oils are still pretty bad for cats.

Essential Oil Toxicity in Cats

The reason why these oils are risky is that they contain compounds such as terpenes, ketones, and phenols. Your cat’s liver cannot metabolize these chemicals, as it doesn’t have the enzymes necessary for processing and excreting them. As a result, there is always a possibility of their accumulation in the liver building to toxic levels.

https://www.webmd.com/pets/cats/risks-of-essential-oils-for-cats

English cucumbers come with their own condom, but it usually has rough seams :(

Yes but Michael Phelps took them all 😞

White Wine in the Sun is a Christmas song by Australian comedian Tim Minchin.

I know it’s a joke, but this is actually the reason. Humans are shit at protecting themselves alone. This goes for weather, predators, accidents. If you’re alone you have a much lower chance of survival.

People with a naturally higher desire to fit in/fear of being shunned or cast out of the safety of the group survived and produced offspring at a higher rate.

It doesn’t serve in quite the same way anymore, you aren’t going to die because of a social faux pas, but your brain will still wake you up at 3am to scream at you that you absolutely will.

The Joann Fabric and Crafts near me stopped offering a restroom to customers during Covid and never went back (understandable). But knowing that I can’t go while I’m there has created a situation where nothing makes me need to take a shit more urgently than browsing fabric and craft supplies. Luckily there is a Target next door.

Moist Olympics

Yesterday during women’s volleyball (Czech Republic vs USA) an American announcer said “Czechoslov……. Czechia…” I haven’t heard anyone upset about it yet, but I was expecting to.

Definitely less offensive than being chatty about “ladies and their silly lady habits lololol!”

I commented below with a similar idea. Like a public indoor park, for when Outside™ is no longer an option for recreation due to climate issues. They are big enough to accommodate large playgrounds, both child and adult style, running tracks, swimming pools, sports fields/courts. Keep the food court, sure, throw in a library, etc.

If we ever get a house and senate progressive enough to shave like 0.000000001% of the military budget we could put one in every abandoned mall and have funds left over.

As is often mentioned, the plumbing situation makes this somewhat untenable.

But, as the world warms and outdoor recreation becomes impossible, I think they could be repurposed into indoor recreation centers, not that different from a regular mall, just less focused on shopping and more on fun and exercise.