UConn James

Almost the exact same circumstances for us c. 2008. My little guy who we'd had from the very start --- I picked him up off the ground when his mother gave birth to him outside and then walked away and made like she didn't want anything to do with him. We kept him for 12 great years. Then a large abdominal mass and had to do right by him, and stayed with him and told him he was a good boy even as the vet slipped the needle in. It literally broke my heart, and then hardened it. Didn't want another dog. Looking back, I was very moody and angry a lot. And then some drunk dude walked into our house... just walked in while I was alone. And that was it, we were getting another dog after about three years. And I've written it here before and I'll write it again. Waiting was the stupidest thing. The hurt doesn't go away and the new can't replace the old, but as the vet said, there is time in life to have maybe six dogs (through long experience I've discovered that one at a time is enough) and they all teach you something different... a big thing. One will teach you Loyalty and Honor. Another will teach Strength and Endurance. Or Patience and Gentleness. Et cetera. So certainly take some time to grieve... but don't take too long. We've all got too much to learn from them.

Lisa voted for Penner. Which is weird, because she and Skupin are supposedly as close as an alliance-of-two as you can be without it being official... and Skupin voted Artis. I just can't wait for Abi to get hers, loudmouth assumptive b----. She has no clue how much she's being played by Pete. I don't know whether it was just the early focus on Blue in the tribal councils and my missing a few eps, but Denise and Malcom are two of my rooting-for players. Denise is just a squat little powerhouse in the competitions and is simply survivng the alliance / numbers-game squabbles by going along until she has to make a move. And her and Malcom (with an idol) could be really dangerous.

This season is much better than last year's One World because as you say, there were looser parameters with more than 2 tribes. Just like the men vs. women theme that resulted in a totally unexciting last half of the season, having two tribes and then it being basically decided just based on a simple numbers game based on their season-long arc / social conceit is crap. Glad they mixed it up, and encourage less of a tribal focus / identity. I didn't have a favorable view of Penner. Still not sure about him, but that was a brilliant strategy in the reward challenge and I also appreciated his talks with Lisa last night. Especially the big-picture view of this game. That was a man working his behind off trying to save the same. And he was spot-on. Once you've turned on your allegiance even the least tiny bit, you'd better go full throttle, b/c they'll go after you first. And Lisa's vote shows she still doesn't get that, even with Abi's stink eye / death stare directed straight at her. The preview looks like that's going to come to a head next week.

I saw a South African ballot years ago that had 28 candidates for president. I think that was too much.

If I'm reading it right, he was saying that the FIRING is not in and of itself due to the sex act, but the implications that are surmised e.g. they were boinking so that's why she got the promotion rather than Fred, who is more qualified / they stopped boinking so that's why she was fired. Lawsuits in these matters get numerous, vicious, and extremely costly both in $ and b/c of the distraction to business. That's why those clauses are in employment contracts. KD wasn't saying sexual vs. nonsexual.

Another dumb See You Next Tuesday.

Now it's on to find the highest octane fuel producers!

As I wrote above, if it's a decent machine and especially if it's 15+ years old when they still built things to last awhile, a simple fix can be much more cost-effective than buying new and having to replace this new one even faster than an oldie. This is not a big secret. They're making appliances of cheaper materials today and they are designed to not last long... so you can get the pleasure of forking over more $ even more frequently. That's a hell of a business model, I'll say!! But... if Fez or anyone is going to go the new route, Lowe's has the same kind of card [cue the Coke ZERO commercial] AND?!??! ... if you pick up a change-of-address envelope at the Post Office, the 10% off coupons for Lowe's are back. For a big item like this, 10% can be $50-80+ off.

The voice/creator of Elmo does, however, allegedly like to be tickled --- and more --- by 16-year-old boys.... SMH (And... I wrote allegedly b/c you have to, but even PBS is totally walking away from this guy. A guy who they released a documentary about a couple of years ago that received a lot of attention.) http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/voice-elmo-actor-accused-sex-teen-denies-charges-article-1.1200566

Funny. I've never seen more sore winners!!

Well, he's gotta leave a wedge issue or two for the 2016 Democrat. I mean, working to achieve your base's policy goals means they'll have no reason to keep voting for you. The gay community might turn to things like improving the economy or reducing the deficit/debt and Dems don't want that. There's future-elections to win, dammit!

In case no one noticed, this is an offense league now. The rules are bent over backwards to promote scoring. You take DEEP shots downfield to get PI calls. You don't have a guy who can consistently throw well and make ALL the throws, game in and game out, you're screwed. Fitz was putting EVERYTHING HE HAS into 20-yard outs. If you saw the first Dalton TD pass vs. the Giants today, Fitzpatrick couldn't throw that in his dreams. Gutting it out another year with him is just going to be more of the same. The D needs some work, needs Dareus to come back for this sophomore slump (and maybe mow some more lawns this offseason like he did during the lockout) and for Mario to show up in Year 2 when most UFAs start getting comfortable (and I he doesn't, release him). We need LBs in the worst way. But if it's Te'o vs. finally getting a franchise QB even if you have to (ad if it's possible to) move up, you get the QB. QB is the heart of your team. And seriously, if they try the whole Tarvaris Jackson 'Look what we found in the garbage last year! Let's polish 'im up and try him out!' routine, I'm completely done with this team. TJ should be given an audition this year, but I get the sinking feeling that he's going to be the marketing ploy for why we didn't draft a QB again.

"The November Christmas" was played on broadcast teevee (we're antenna-only with a Netflix supplement and very happy that way) last year and I've gotta admit to wiping a few tears. Really hits home this year as my mum is now facing her own cancer battle....

Screw the cost, it's deductible. Go see someone.

We had the same problem for awhile with the dryer making an awful racket. Called a guy we know in town who my dad knows and I was also inquiring whether it'd be worth it to repair or just replace it, since our units are 20+ years old. Clothes had been taking longer to dry and you'd open the door and see that it hadn't been spinning or was spinning just intermittently. He said that these older machines (Maytag, BTW) are better built than the new crap they have now. New appliances of any kind will see a repairman in 6 years and likely be tossed by 8-10. I've kept ours clean with regular maintenance and running a cup+ of vinegar in an empty hot cycle every so often, and I throw some bleach in with our white towels, so getting something shiny isn't an issue... not that it should be if the machine still works. He listened to the noise, said it was a flywheel type thing that typically wears down b/c it's made of plastic. He took it out, and comparing it to a new one (the part looks kind of like a hamster wheel) where it attaches around the bolt, ours was now an O where the new had a flat spot and was shaped like a D. "Why don't they put a *metal* bushing where it's rotating around the bolt?" said I. He shrugged and said, "Exactly." Replaced. $167 for the part and service call charge. Good as new, quiet, and drying faster. YMMV depending on the age of your machine/s, brand, specific problem. We also took the opportunity, on his recommendation to replace the old spiral-wire plastic vent tubing with some 4" aluminum dryer vent pipe and some aluminum foil tape. (You do need to keep a way to disassemble for cleaning to remove lint build-up.) Not the accordion stuff, to be clear. I tried that some time ago and it ripped during install, total PITA. All the other stuff is a potential fire hazard. Your link isn't opening for me, BTW.

'Everything's great! Everything's great!" *CRASH* Whoops! http://ctmirror.com/story/18167/state-budget-deficit-explodes-governor-expected-prepare-deficit-mitigation-plan And this is after his RECORD TAX INCREASE that he promised wouldn't happen before his first budget. He campaigned that he'd tax the rich --- and "the rich" turned out to be everyone making more than $50K paying ~$2,000-$3,000 more in income taxes a year. Symptomatic of profligate Democrat tax-and-spenders. THIS is exactly why I have ZERO CONFIDENCE in Obama's "tax the wealthy" plan to reduce the deficit. He'll tax. And then he'll spend it 'n----- rich' style and then we'll have an even bigger deficit than before. Word is that our illustrious governor is heading to a major Obama Administration appointment. Well.... maybe the $600M 6-mile magic busway linking two impoverished cities will be the answer to all our problems! It's time to get the frack out of this state. But wither to go where this isn't happening?

Spin Doctors - "Pocket Full of Kryptonite"

1) Romney got where he was by working his ass off, first to learn and then to accomplish. You may think money earned from a life in business isn't as pure as a bank account filled with dollars from being a plumber. If you're here to demonize someone for entering a line of work where the reward is high because the risk is high... go to hell. There was a guy in an article yesterday who wanted to sit down with Romney to talk about things and asked when would be a good time. Romney said he was going to be very busy for quite some time getting a lot of awesome people from his campaign good jobs. That is the measure of the man, even in defeat. Mitt Romney is a respectable man, which is more than I can say for how you've come here to peacock. 2) Jobs numbers that are still below the Mendoza Line 48 months after the recession --- the longest any recovery has taken --- is not steady progress. By your estimation, the Bills last few games have been progress toward making the playoffs, huh? 3) Last I looked, there is no discrimination class for political affiliation. As much as this guy is rubbing peoples' noses in it, it's entirely possible that he'd been holding off on letting those people go until it became clear that the policies that got us to this point would be continuing. A business can only keep people on as long as it's profitable or at least is a wash. There's no guarantee of a good job except in Mother Russia and Liberal Utopia Land. Costs driving up overhead? People will be let go. Sorry. And even if he is being purely an asshat, it would mostly be in reaction to the asshatry among the liberal electorate's election-cojones. It's like everywhere you go, self-identified Progressives are telling everyone how it is now, what's going to happen and who'd better do what. Or what? How Papa John's owner John Shnatter lives in a "castle!!!" and should just take a 14-cent hit on every pizza his company makes --- to wit, per the Payton Manning commercial, Papa John's is *giving away* 2 million pizzas in his most recent promotion --- to pay for ACA. You want him living in a cardboard box so PJ workers can get all the benefits and shoulder no more of the burdens, especially if this whole $0.14 x 15 million is bad for business. And then where does it stop? 'Oh, come on. Give 'em free dental too. It's JUST 10 cents more per pizza!!!' And then free hair plugs. And then.... From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs. Obama got this largely because of the same "you don't change horses midstream" mindset that saw Bush II get a second term. Well, 2016 is going to be wide open, with many quality candidates stepping forward who didn't want to go this time b/c they saw the writing on the wall and determined it was still too soon. This election was certainly not a mandate.

That's the thing of it. You don't say that publicly unless someone is threatening to release it themselves, ala David Letterman.

Yeah, sitting doing nothing really isn't going to help. It may well be something he feels he can't recover from professionally if it was in-house or whatever the details are. But there's enough out there WRT his talking about the embassy attack and murder of Amb. Stevens and three others, just before the election. It's standard procedure that immediately after the election, the president gets resignations from his (or her!) entire cabinet and head muckity-mucks. That way there's less direct confrontation, and publicly, people who are let go can save face professionally.

You're right. This... or any... administration should be taken for its words, rather that its deeds. Any mention of whether Operation Fast and Furious would constitute illegal weapons trade? Thousands of AK-47s paid for with tax dollars, delivered directly into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, who've used them in multiple murders, including a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Oh... wait. Let's just forget that happened, that the regional directors of it were actually promoted to D.C. ATF, and that Obama used executive privilege so no one can find out the depths of this thing. Will the U.N. have an executive privilege thingy?

With a number of distractions (not least of which is my mum in the hospital with "the C word") I missed several episodes up until this week and I'm now quite lost WRT alliances and such. Wow. RC got pretty hot once the rolls came off. Penner was the set target last night... until he won immunity. Then Mr. HurtsHimself. Then Jeff. Then Malcom. Then Pete. And then... the weirdest tribal I've ever seen with two people revealing they have idols, and one who bluffed that he was going to use it that night. Jeff got voted out, which sent Malcom's eyes darting and had an 'Oh stevestojan' look, so I gather Jeff was in his alliance and someone turned? The preview shows that FactsofLife will be switching alliances --- which gives her ~ an 86% chance if being voted out next week. Abi.... besides being loud, stupid, and easily fooled, does she even know how to play this game? Nice peach, tho.

We'll see if he's still so appreciative of all those somebody elses who built that when there's routinely too much month at the end of the money.

Let me just add that as a Republican, I do support civil unions/gay marriage/whatever states want to call it. I think my party is on the wrong side of this, at least from a legal and constitutional standpoint because of the 14th amendment (equal protection), and hardly less so because the demographics say that this is going to happen. We should be on the right side of this, but there's a particular Crazy Baptist Minister set in the party that wants to impose this religious doctrine to the bitter end. I'm not saying that everyone needs to like it. People can still personally think it's immoral. But we live in a country that was grounded in legal freedom and live'n'let-die even for things we don't agree with. It's going to be a heck of a thing to try to move on from, tho. And it has the capacity to off-the-top alienate 10% of the electorate.

1. If Romney couldn't make it out of the primaries doing that, I'm not sure that person exists. 2. How on earth can they reconcile changes like that with what's on the record? As I wrote in another thread, I think, given what we've seen of the early demographics and trends, the best shot Republicans have in 2016 is Susana Martinez.