Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
Harley is eating better & is doing a lot better. She's continued to turn her nose up at kibble, even when covered with tuna fish juice. She will eat Milkbone dog biscuits, a little canned food & milk. Still won't eat chicken soup or cottage cheese. She did take her pill with peanut butter. Odd, but I guess she knows what she needs right now.
Jim wrote: "Harley is eating better & is doing a lot better. She's continued to turn her nose up at kibble, even when covered with tuna fish juice. She will eat Milkbone dog biscuits, a little canned food & ..."I'll bet she wouldn't turn up her nose at "Chicken Nibbles". All our family dogs love them. I give them for Christmas presents. :)
See: http://www.petguys.com/-727348881010....
They sometimes have coupons. I just signed up for the coupons. IIRC, I got $5.00 off of my last order.
Margaret wrote: "Jim wrote: "Harley ate half a biscuit when I got home! And drank a little milk. Maybe she will make it.Kids will be kids. We quit counting stitches years ago & even the kids have trouble remem..."So glad to hear your dog is doing better..I did say a prayer and don't discount that Praying helps doesn't it? nina
My mom came over and roped me into restoring her boyfriend's canoe. We had a nice time. Now I'm off to read on the porch. What a beautiful day, after last night's theatrics!
Jackie wrote: "My mom came over and roped me into restoring her boyfriend's canoe. We had a nice time. Now I'm off to read on the porch. What a beautiful day, after last night's theatrics!"Yes, today was a beautiful day... a good day for our son to start his camping vacation. Your mom is lucky you know how to restore canoes, Jackie. :)
I just got back late yesterday from a week's vacation, so what I'll be doing today (and tomorrow, and the next day :-)) is digging out from under my mountains of accumulated snail mail and e-mail, both at work and at home. And this will be a hectic week, since I'm helping out with VBS every weeknight at our church. So even though I'm back, for awhile I won't have as much time to post on Goodreads as I'd like --even though I'm champing at the bit to review some of the reading I did last week!Joy, I'm hoping your knee feels much better soon; and Jim, I wish Harley a very speedy recovery!
Werner wrote: "I just got back late yesterday from a week's vacation, so what I'll be doing today (and tomorrow, and the next day :-)) is digging out from under my mountains of accumulated snail mail and e-mail, ..."Welcome back, Werner! I understand completely about not having enough time. Hope you had a good vacation and will get settled and back to normal soon. Thanks for the update and the good wishes.
Werner: What's VBS?I'm helping a friend paint her hallway and kitchen today. Busy day.
Jackie wrote: "I'm helping a friend paint her hallway and kitchen today. Busy day."Jackie, you're amazing... restoring your mom's canoe... painting. I once wallpapered my own room when I was a teenager... don't know what happened after that. I'm not handy at all. Hate doing that stuff.
Just heard today's "Writer's Almanac" with Garrison Keillor (7/13/09). It's a good one. See:====> http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
(Click on "Listen". That's the best way, IMO)
A great poem entitled "Money" by John Updike.
Also, a piece about William Wordsworth. It says: "... he composed his famous poem ('Tintern Abbey.') entirely in his head. ... It's an impressive feat, considering that the poem is more than 1,200 words long."
What great minds!
I haven't done the canoe yet. It's up to them to get me the materials and bring the paddles over. I'm not starting a job unless I have everything I need. I hate having half-done jobs in the garage.I just found about 15 T shirts for work, that can be trashed. Perfect timing!
Jackie wrote: "I haven't done the canoe yet. It's up to them to get me the materials and bring the paddles over. ... I just found about 15 T shirts for work, that can be trashed. Perfect timing! "I love comfortable old clothes. They preserve the new ones. I searched for a quote about "comfortable old clothes". I found the following:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aunt Mary Drexel: [singing:]
"There are those to whom position is a natural born condition, to be worn with ease like comfortable old clothes. Though the nouveau riche deny it, all their money cannot buy it! Class will out. Goodness knows, but there are those."
Memorable quotes for movie: "The Happiest Millionaire" (1967)
FROM: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061749/q...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't know what that's worth, but I liked it.
"There's no substitute for class." -Bennet Cerf on What's My Line
"There are two things to remember. The first one is kismet, destiny, and there is nothing you can do about that. The second thing is your character, and there, you have control. You can lose your beauty, you can lose your health, your wealth, but you will never lose your character; it is in your own hands."
-Quoted by Betty Ford in _The Right Words at the Right Time_, 2002.
Anyway, I'm comfortable in old clothes... as long as no one sees me. :)
With my type of job, clothes don't last, so it's always a bonus to 'find' clothes that can get messed up and it's not a big deal.Still love my old comfortable clothes. I practically live in my PJ bottoms and slippers!
Jackie, Harley helped me make my lunch today & led the begging for biscuits when I got home. She's out for a walk with Marg right now, so I think she's back to her old self. Thanks for asking. It was a pretty horrific & expensive week, last week.I got Werner's book back from Joy today along with a nice note & some post cards of Lake George. Very pretty up there. (I've meant to email you a couple of times & keep forgetting, so I'll just do it here in public. Hope you don't mind.)
NP, I've been so busy lately too...public is just as good as private. I've been gone all day out of the house 5 out of the past 7 days. That's a real lot for me. I'm ruining my reputation as a Hermit, LOLI'm so happy Harley is back to her self. It's awful when our pets get ill.
Wonderful news abou Harley. Is he/she named after the motorcycle? nina
Nina wrote: "Wonderful news abou Harley. Is he/she named after the motorcycle? nina"I too wondered where Harley got her name. Glad to hear she's recovered.
Harley is short for Harley Quinn or Harlequin. When she was a pup, one side of her face was black, the other white - thus the idea of the harlequin mask. There was a Batman cartoon on at the time that the kids loved & the Joker's girlfriend/accomplice was Harley Quinn.
To be honest, I'm not positive what her papered name is. One of those two, though. Much of the black has turned brown on her face - more brown the older she gets. She's about 10 now.
She's still not totally up to snuff, but scared up & tried to run down a rabbit last night, so she's well along the road to recovery. She's eating well, although still small amounts - she could only eat half her dinner at first, last night. She finished it off an hour later, though.
Thanks for all your support.
Jackie, you asking me for the meaning of an abbreviation is a switch! :-) You've helped me out with those often enough that I'm glad to have a chance to return the favor.VBS stands for "Vacation Bible School." That's a program a lot of churches do every summer, bringing in their own kids (and other kids in the community) for a couple of hours of Bible lessons, crafts, games, etc. each day over a one-week period (usually in the evenings). At our church, they always put me in charge of registration. (They're under the misimpression that I'm good at organizing records --though I usually don't feel very organized! :-))
RE: 'VBS'SEE LINK: ====> http://www.acronymfinder.com/VBS.html
I find the following link for abbreviations very handy sometimes: ====>
http://www.acronymfinder.com/
PS-Why didn't GR make the above link a hyperlink?
Thanks, Werner. I have a friend who sends her kids to a similar church based program in the summer.
I looked up "harlequin".There's a whole history behind the word. ===>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia...
(Scroll down to: "Arlecchino".)
Always wondered about it.
Too bad that when we die we can't take all our hard-earned learning with us. Wish there were a way of copying all the good knowledge and wise insights in my brain to a CD and transferring it all to my grandkids' brains. Wonder why I couldn't find a quote to express that. Somebody else surely must have had that thought at one time or another.
"What they know, you can learn. What you know, they'll never learn."
-paraphrased, (heard on TV when Tim Russert died)
Marg says her papered name is Harlequin, like the mask, not Harley Quinn like the Joker's girlfriend. The kids & I voted for the latter. Now you know why I call Marg, 'The Boss'. 4 votes to 1 & she won anyway.
Jim wrote: "Marg says her papered name is Harlequin, like the mask, not Harley Quinn like the Joker's girlfriend. The kids & I voted for the latter. Now you know why I call Marg, 'The Boss'. 4 votes to 1 & ..."At least the dog is called "Harley". So, in a way, everyone won.
I learned more about Harley Quinn at: ====>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley_Q...
(re girlfriend of the joker) (1992)
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myst...
(re the Agatha Christie character, Harley Quin) (1930)
I had never heard of either one of these characters before this.
I've always loved cartoons - something that Jackie & I have in common. All my kids liked them too. If I didn't have to work (rare) on Saturday mornings, we'd snuggle down & watch a couple of hours of them when they were little. We liked the Xmen, Batman, Spiderman & all.
Jim wrote: "I've always loved cartoons - something that Jackie & I have in common. All my kids liked them too. If I didn't have to work (rare) on Saturday mornings, we'd snuggle down & watch a couple of hour..."I remember those cozy days, watching cartoons with the kids.
I searched Netflix for the animated adventures of Batman and found quite a few pages of them:====>
http://www.netflix.com/Search?v1=Batm...
However, as far as I could see, none of them feature the episode with Harley Quinn (entitled "Joker's Favor"). At least the descriptions don't mention her. It would have been fun to watch that episode.
Harley Quinn was in a lot of episodes. She was the Jokers sidekick, like Mystique is to Magneto or Robin is to Batman. Well, she was in one particular Batman cartoon series anyway. She isn't in most of them.-------
What I am going to do today is get a have-a-heart trap from a friend. I will take it home & catch the young coon that has been making our lives miserable the past few nights. Especially last night when he tore through the screen in the kitchen window. Marg found him sitting on the counter eating dog biscuits.
For the past couple of nights, the dogs have been suddenly barking every hour or so. Makes sleeping pretty difficult when you're suddenly levitating out of bed. We didn't know what their problem was, so Marg finally locked them in their crates in her room. With the fan on, no one realized the coon invaded the place.
They are cute though! Not that I'd want one in my kitchen. My husband is working on a job, and there are raccoons living under the house. The sweet old woman wanted to let them stay, LOLSpeaking of cartoons, Jim, my son just found some late night cartoons for me on Disney XD, a channel I didn't know I had. The old X Men, the Newer X Men Evolution, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Spiderman etc... Good thing it's only one a week or I'd be glued to the TV, LOL
I never got to see enough of the Silver Surfer. I have all the Xmen cartoons, I think. I really liked the Fantastic Four & Spiderman, too. The latter is on fairly often I think. Not sure which set it is though. It's been redone so many times. I never cared for the Spiderman & Friends ones as much. The computer I have hooked to the TV had a Windows moment & I've spent way too much time trying to get it back on track. For some reason Windows keeps goofing around with the onboard & PCI video card now. I can't seem to get just the PCI video card to work at the resolution I need. I had it all OK, except the resolution, & the whole thing blew up when I tried to change it. I had to uninstall, reinstall & now it thinks that it should have 2 monitors. ARRRGGHHH! I'll try again tonight.
Jim wrote: "...I will ... catch the young coon that has been making our lives miserable the past few nights. Especially last night when he tore through the screen in the kitchen window. Marg found him sitting on the counter eating dog biscuits"Jim, have you caught the racoon yet? They're such nervy animals... but cute. :)
Yes, they've cultivated their cuteness just so they can get away with unruly behavior and have everyone still think they're cute and forgive them any infraction against the law. ROFL
Jackie wrote: "Yes, they've cultivated their cuteness just so they can get away with unruly behavior and have everyone still think they're cute and forgive them any infraction against the law. ROFL"How can we resist this face: ====>
http://www.wunderground.com/data/wxim...
I got the video card issue figured out on the computer. It was a mystical mix of uninstall, reboot, install, disable, reboot, set & pray (or make arcane/profane/threatening symbols with a hammer in one hand & the mouse in the other). Not sure what did the trick.I'm sorry to say that I caught only air last night. I'll try again tonight. The little bugger managed to get the dog biscuit out of the trap, too. They are smart. Hopefully, I'm smarter. We'll see. At least we got a good night's sleep.
Jim wrote: "I got the video card issue figured out on the computer. It was a mystical mix of uninstall, reboot, install, disable, reboot, set & pray (or make arcane/profane/threatening symbols with a hammer i..."Good luck with the raccoon and the video card.
Where will you take the raccoon after you catch him?
The raccoon may get dropped off at a big woods near work - if I'm coming down this way. Otherwise, he will meet his maker. They have to be taken at least 10 miles away or they'll come back. He's not getting that chance.
Jim wrote: "The raccoon may get dropped off at a big woods near work - if I'm coming down this way. Otherwise, he will meet his maker. They have to be taken at least 10 miles away or they'll come back. He's..."Hope he makes it to the woods! :)
I also hope that the poor little critter doesn't have to face capital punishment. :-) Some of my brothers-in-law hunt raccoons for their pelts (and also eat the meat; Barb's side of the family are mountain people who were raised on wild game, so we eat quite a few things that raise eyebrows among city-dwellers :-)). But Barb and I have never hunted or eaten one --personally, I think they're just too cute for that!
I had a new trash can gnawed through, a screen torn up & I'm short on sleep from him waking up the dogs every hour. My cup of mercy ran out along with my patience.I did catch the bugger last night & released him near work, so you can staunch your bleeding hearts. He wasn't that cute. He was a pest. I got rid of him the easiest way possible. He wasn't happy with me, but he got a 35 mile ride in the trap in the back of the pickup in the rain at 5am this morning. He should consider himself lucky.
I've never eaten coon & don't think I'd want to try it. I'd guess it would be gamey, like groundhog or possum. I don't care for them, either.
Jim, thanks for letting us know the conclusion to the saga, and I'm glad it ended well for both of you. (I'm staunching my bleeding heart right now. :-)) You're absolutely right that raccoons can be real pests; I see where you're coming from, and wouldn't have blamed you if you'd had to put him down --when humans and wild animals are thrown together in the same habitats, those things just have to happen sometimes. (But it's nice that it didn't have to happen in this case!)Surprisingly, though I was raised in a city (of sorts --it was relatively big, for Iowa), I don't mind the gamey flavor of wild animals; but then, I don't have a very sharp sense of taste. I've never heard of eating possum, but I do like groundhog. Barb could give Marg a recipe for fixing it with barbecue sauce; maybe that would improve it. (Or not! :-))
Jim wrote: "I had a new trash can gnawed through, a screen torn up... I did catch the bugger last night & released him near work......he got a 35 mile ride in the trap in the back of the pickup in the rain at 5am this morning. He should consider himself lucky."
Yes, he is lucky, Jim. And you're quite an early bird!
Werner wrote: "Jim, thanks for letting us know the conclusion to the saga, and I'm glad it ended well for both of you. (I'm staunching my bleeding heart right now. :-))..."LOL
Werner wrote: ..."I don't have a very sharp sense of taste..."
That's interesting, Werner. I've noticed that I have sharper sense of smell than Eddie. When I smell a strange smell, he sometimes doesn't even know it's there. It was a revelation to me to realize that each of us is so different. My sister can tolerate hotter water than I can. We each have a different pain threshold. I resemble The Princess and the Pea... sensitive to pain ...and annoying odors, etc. Sometimes it doesn't see fair. :)
From what I've read, individual human senses of smell and taste seem to be closely correlated; if one isn't very sharp, neither is the other, and vice versa. That's true in my case; unless an odor is very pervasive, I usually can't smell it unless I stick my nose really close to the source. I guess the advantages and disadvantages of this pretty much balance each other out overall. :-)
Werner wrote: "From what I've read, individual human senses of smell and taste seem to be closely correlated; if one isn't very sharp, neither is the other, and vice versa. That's true in my case; unless an odor is very pervasive..."Yes, sometimes when we're suffering from a stuffed up head caused by a cold, our sense of taste and our sense of smell are both affected.
It's very frustrating when I complain of a foul odor and Eddie says, "I don't smell anything" (and he doesn't have a cold). I could scream! LOL
Thanks for the offer, Werner, but I think I'll pass. We don't seem to have as many groundhogs here in KY as we did in MD. Besides, I'm not really interested in eating one anyway. I'll try most anything, but groundhogs never impressed me as something to eat.I have a very keen sense of smell & taste, even after smoking for 30 plus years. Weird.
Joy, I actually get to work at 5:45am, an hour later now than I did when in MD. It gives me quality time with my servers before anyone else gets in. I can check the backups, patch, reboot & such without users on the systems. Then everything is all set for them to make the money to pay me with. No excuses!
;-)
I don't usually bear animals any ill will, but that raccoon has made this week a pretty tough one & I get cranky without my proper sleep. I'm also ticked off that all we have are worthless dogs. They just bark about a coon instead of actually hunting it down. Opportunistic hunters rather than real ones.
They're more interested in stealing my covers than in catching a coon. Last night Pixie stole my spot in bed when I got up for a minute. She seemed quite miffed when I shoved her over. I don't know what her problem was. She still had a pillow & blankets.
Tomorrow is Munchkin's 18th birthday. Even 5 years ago, he would have staked out the yard & caught that coon. He's too old & slow now. He's still happy & went for a walk around the woods with Marg last night. That's the first time in a month or so.
I once wrote a poetry book for children called, "Kind and Other Critters." Some of the poems were published in Parents magazines etc. Here is the title poem below. It seemed appropriate from what we are discussing today:RACOON CAPERS
From night till morn
I sampled corn
Then
emptied garbage cans
But
don't blame me
for what I did
I'm a critter,
not a kid.
The End.
Jim wrote: "... Last night Pixie stole my spot in bed when I got up for a minute. She seemed quite miffed when I shoved her over. I don't know what her problem was. She still had a pillow & blankets..."LOL - Jim, you sound like Eddie. He gets miffed when our three dogs (Romeo and 2 visiting dogs) don't cooperate at supper-time. They steal each other's food and Eddie has to stand guard or feed them in shifts. He's forever complaining, as if the dogs know better.
Happy Birthday to Munchkin. Here's a birthday cake for him. ====>
http://www.sjgames.com/ill/img/2007/c...
(It shows Munchkin prepared for the next raccoon.) :)
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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Kids will be kids. We quit counting stitches years ago & even the kids have trouble remembering who g..."
Hi Jim - I'm so glad Harley is perking up a bit. My old Maine Coon Cat Tenzing once had a liver crisis that was very similar to what you describe Harley having - we never did figure out what was causing it or what it meant - , and it was super scary, but after about four days he came around on his own and I had the pleasure of his company for another two years. I'm rooting for Harley!