Toadfish Monastery

This is where we can discuss some of the rules of the games, some of which may evolve during the play.

Hey-o!

In the "What Are You Eating?" thread Zono, Roy and I began to discuss college tuition, but since that discussion was using up too much valuable sandwich space, I have re-started it here.

My daughter (known here as th'Opsalette) is now fifteen and in the tenth grade here in the U.S. She is a very good student, very conscientious, studies hard and gets good grades. Last semester she got all A's and did not have to take the final exams because there was no doubt about her getting an A in each class.

Mr. Ops and I are middle class. Well, okay- we're brilliant , but we are in the middle income U.S. tax bracket. Here in the states it means that we are able to live within our income, but only if we are not extravagant. We do not drive new cars or go overseas on vacation.

Th'Opsalette is being approached by colleges all ready because of her good grades. (Or maybe they send everyone dozens of college pamphlets these days, I dunno.) We are only able to save a little bit towards her college, and are hoping that she will be able to win a scholarship. (No guarantee there, of course.)

Zone says that in his state there is a program where one can freeze college class costs early. I believe we do that in our state, too.

What other ways may we start to figure out how to afford an education for th'Opsalette? She has expressed an interest in teaching, but is not really sure of what she might major in. She loves reading and is a good writer, but is also very good at drawing, acting and singing. What would you do if you were her parent?

Hey! Here's where we can talk a little about what we did last weekend, especially if it was interesting.

Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday in the USA, basically a sports holiday revolving around the National football championship game.

The Ops family are not sports fans, and although this makes us shunned by some, we like to take advantage of Superbowl Sunday by going to the Washington DC National Mall (a mall of excellent free museums, not stores!) on the one day a year that it is easily navigable.

We started at the Botanical Gardens (a gigantic greenhouse), where we strolled though the various rooms of live plants without our coats, breathing in the moist, fragrant air and soaking up some rays of sun.

We then crossed the mall (a big green, where all the major demonstrations are usually held, since the US Capitol building is on one side) to the National Gallery of Art East Wing, where contemporary art is displayed, then crossed under in the throughway below the street, where we had some gelato by the indoor waterfall before continuing into the National Gallery West Wing, which contains classical pieces.

From there we went out to the sculpture garden. By then the temperatures had risen to near 60F and it was quite pleasant. People were skating on the ice rink in the sunshine, and I found the "new" Chagall mosaic, a big piece that had been in someone's garden in Georgetown until about a month ago. Since I am an art nerd, this was thrilling.

We then walked to the American History museum where Mr. Ops wanted to see the coin collection, and we also visited Julia Childs' kitchen recreation among other things. It may sound boring, but it was very interesting to me what good vibes this old kitchen held. It was definitely a happy workshop, filled with Julia's love of the art of cooking. It was like an artist's studio- all her tools were all over the place- there were no blank walls! In the middle was a long table with some fascinating handmade three legged chairs at the ends. I could just picture the place filled up with steam and people hanging out at the table, tasting things.

Our feet were beat by the end of the day, but we were very happy. We went home and ordered Chinese food and watched "Sunset Boulevard". That's my idea of a perfect Superbowl Sunday.

We are very sorry to report that our beloved sibling Pieces of Nine died December 23.

Toadfish Siblings are encouraged to light candles of remembrance for our dear friend.

Pieces rocked. She was a strong and outspoken Toadfish Sibling, always ready to lend an ear and offer encouragement, merriment, or a shoulder to cry on. She was a person of amazing artistic talents. She was a boisterous pirate lady, but always kind. Everyone loved her so much. I can't believe she's gone.

Pieces, wherever you are, know that your Toadfish siblings love you and will honor your memory always.

Hey! We're eight years old today! Yeay us!

Big hugs to all Toadfish siblings new and old.

Since we are the Honorable Order of Toadfish, may I suggest that on behalf of your fellow Toadfish you do something to honor yourself today (or when ever you get around to reading this), whether it be taking a nap, taking a nip, or otherwise giving yourself a pat on the back.

We are Toadfish! We are sometimes dark and solitary, sometimes light and gregarious. We are individuals. We are together. We belong in this world. Here is where we congregate. Huzzah!

Dear Siblings,

I am very grateful to have you in my life, and especially grateful to MB for creating this site, to Aggie who so generously hosted it and to Griffin who maintains it faithfully.

I look forward to visiting you here, and appreciate all the unique kinds of wonderful each of you represents. Thank you for being here, just as you are.

We're of no particular religion here, so I'll try to stay away from any denominational greeting. I'll just say that as this year closes, I am glad to have you, my Toadfish siblings. So whenever you celebrate whatever you choose, please remember that somewhere out there I am celebrating you, as among the nicest things that ever happened to me.

A toast- to all Toadfish everywhere!

I just caught this on Yahoo News. We've reached a nuclear deal with Iran. I know it's temporary, but shouldn't we be dancing in the streets or something?

This topic has been moved to Human Concerns.

http://toadfishmonastery.com/forum/index.php?topic=3230.0

Hi Sibs!

I am a bit of a candle fiend, possibly brought on by the fact that I couldn't burn them in the house when my child was younger. I buy candles all the time at yard sales, if they are in good condition, because I think they are fun and relaxing to burn.

I have actually had to restrict myself from buying candle holders though, even bargains, because I have so many all ready.

Sometimes candles do not fit well into candle holders. They used to sell these little doo-dads that fit into the holder, a sort of little gasket thingy to keep the candle (taper) upright, but I haven't seen any for sale for quite some time. Sometimes I will adjust a candle's base by putting a small roll of clay around the holder end, but that is a bit messy.

Today I had the bright idea to buy some small rubber bands and try them. I put one or two on the candle's base and it seems to do a nice job. The package I bought had many different sizes, and I suppose you could double or triple them up as needed.

I hope this help you the next time you have a wobbly taper!

With due respect to everyone here, I would like to pass along a peace petition for Syria which you may choose to sign or not, depending on how much of a bleeding heart pacifist you are at the present.

My personal opinion is that causing more bloodshed does not end bloodshed, and I am against any more war anywhere and for continued efforts at making peace. Peace takes a lot of effort, but it's worth it.

I know that not everyone agrees with me, this is just my five cents. I also know that petitions don't do that much. I just feel so helpless about this and I signed to add my voice in favor of peace talks over air strikes.

I heard about this last night on the news. There's going to be a new way to block robocalls soon called NOMOROBO. If you go to the site you can sign up for updates.

I was on the National Do Not Call list to block spammy phone calls, but robocalls somehow get around that, and the worst thing about them is that they do not often give you a way to make them stop calling you. A live person legally has to put you on their Do Not Call list if you ask them to, but how do you say that to a robot?

I hope this will help, because I have received at least seven or eight "This is your final notice to get better credit card rates" calls.

Hi-ho.

I don't know where to post this, but I think it's kinda neat, so I'll start a random photo thread.

We just found this big (4 inch long) moth sitting on the concrete floor near a basement. I looked him up, and I think he's a Citheronia regalis, or Regal moth.

Mr. Ops bought a new sink at a yard sale a while back. It still had the blue protective film on it, so we thought great, the surface will be fine.

Our kitchen faucet started to leak, and Mr. Ops decided it was time to install the whole new sink, as long as he had to replace the faucet.

Of course, he could have just replaced the cartridge, but he had found a beautiful new faucet on clearance for dirt cheap, and it was less expensive than the cartridge would have been. It was so cheap he bought new faucets for both bathrooms  as well and installed them moths ago, no problem.

He could not install the new kitchen faucet though, since the old one was fused to the pipes. So we called our handyman, and he said he'd never seen pipes put right onto faucets and suggested those little flexible pipes with cut-offs. So we said okay.

When he opened the box we thought the new kitchen faucet was in, he found just old parts. Mr. Ops had thrown out the new faucet and kept the old parts from the bathroom faucets in the box! Poor thing. He was so embarrassed. So handyman had to go buy us a new kitchen faucet. So much for saving money!

When handyman put the faucets on the sink, he found that the blue protective coating on the chrome sink almost impossible to remove! He was all sorts of apologetic, but I told him to go ahead and install it, and we'd find a way to get the blue stuff off.

I filled the sink with hot soapy water, hoping that it would soften the blue coating. Not much help. I tried isoprophyl alcohol. No good. I went online and read that ammonia worked to dissolve the stuff. It didn't. Finally I found a site that suggested nail polish remover. I tried a little bit and it worked! Thank the Great Whatever!

So five hours and 365 dollars later we have an almost unbearably bright chrome kitchen sink with new faucet and plumbing.

Was it worth it? Yes. The dripping has stopped!

Aggie and I have been having a discussion in Afterglow's comic thread that I think should have its own thread.

This was prompted by a comic that showed Nixon and Obama with wiretapping-style headphones on.

I started with this:

"That's an awesome graphic.

I don't agree with the sentiment, though. Anyone in this country who thinks they are not being monitored to some extent are a bit naive, IMHO. I have always operated on the impression that someone can listen in if they feel I'm a threat. I'm just not a threat. Nothing to hide, no problem. However, if they can cancel any terrorist behavior, then they have my blessings to go in and investigate.

I think that people are afraid that someone will shake their finger at them for looking at porn online, or having an extramarital affair or something. That's not the kind of activity the security people are concerned about. People's naughtiness are of no concern to them unless it involves serious transactions about harmful elements.

Most of us would be extremely boring to them, no matter how thrilling we may think we are. "

Aggie replied:
"The normalization of electronic monitoring is perhaps as or more worrying than the monitoring itself. While major threats are held up as the rationale for monitoring, the technological realities are such that broadscale electronic monitoring is/will be possible.

If you raise a red flag by stringing together a number of words that the computer red-flags as suspicious, how much monitoring are you OK with in order to let them find out that you're not a threat? Phone, text and email tapping? How would you feel if a couple of men in a plain vehicle park on your street and watch your family's daily routine? (the latter is me scaremongering, because I doubt they have the resources for that sort of thing without significant cause) If you're not a terrorist but might be bending other areas of the law, should they be allowed to pass info on to other agencies even if the infractions have nothing to do with the original red flag?

IMHO, this kind of monitoring has more to do with technological abilities and the general political climate more than any particular figurehead.  However, if the powers that be have this kind of a mentality:
(photo of Joe McCarthy)
then the implications of widespread monitoring are disturbing indeed."

I reply to Aggie now:
Aggie- if the gubmint has to park on my street and watch us go to work, school, and the store, so be it. I will wave at them. As long as I know that they are paying as much attention to someone who might be truly dangerous. Maybe it's because I'm sick of things like the Boston marathon bombing, and all that carp. It's so dreadfully chronic. What the heck else are we to do? I'm watching the news and seeing that another school was threatened today in Newtown. I would like people to stop this.

Don't worry, I haven't gone conservative, but I have been trying to consider these problems.

Any replies welcome.

Maurice Sendak is 85 today. Google has a charming animated tribute to him today on their Main Page. Play it to see the journey.

I have always enjoyed his stuff.

We live in a 1920's American country bungalow. It is very plain, not the cool Arts and Crafts style bungalows of the same era, although it has hardwood floors, wide trim and rosettes on the top corners of every window and doorway.

Inside, it was just a small living room, dining room, tiny bathroom and two very small bedrooms with shallow, tiny closets. About eleven years ago we had some money and added on another two bedrooms and a bathroom in back. The old front part has always felt like an ant farm, you have to weave through a little square hallway to get from living room to dining room. We guess this was designed this way to keep warm air contained in the winter, but in the summer before air condition, I can't imagine how they kept cool, because there is no airflow.

Mr. Ops and I dreamed of opening the wall between the living and dining room. For a long time we couldn't afford to do it, but when Grandpa Ops passed away last year, he left enough money for us to be able to do a couple of things to the house that we've wanted to do, so we are going for it.

Having had twenty years in the house to think about it, we had a good idea of what we wanted: an 8 foot wide passage between the two front rooms with the same trim and rosettes found everywhere else in the house. We also thought that built-in bookcases would be nice, and save room in the small rooms for other furniture. We also needed the floors sanded and refinished.

It took us a while to find a carpenter we liked, but last fall a guy came and dug up our front lawn to install pipes. He was dependable, and did a neat job, so we asked him to install a couple of new doors on the back porch, which again he did easily and nicely. So finally we asked if he could do the wall, and we agreed on a price.

He started on Monday, and by the end of the day he and a helper had cut the new opening and hauled away the debris. Even with all the dust, we were thrilled to see the sunlight shining in from the front room to the back. Yesterday he sanded the floors. Today he is working on the threshold between the rooms.

The carpenter is very polite and lets us know when he comes in and when he leaves, which is a change from the guys who did the add-on all those years ago. We never knew when to expect them, or when they'd suddenly disappear. He is a youngish guy (late thirties), quite and humble. He is not perfect, I had to ask him about how level the top of the opening was- he had measured it from the floor, which is old and bows in the middle, so that one side was a little lower than the other. But I think he's okay. At least we communicate well, which is good. He has come up with some thoughtful solutions. I mostly just leave him alone so he can work.

I don't expect perfection, but hopefully, it will all go fine and we'll wind up with improved flow and a better space.

It's that time again, around here. The grass has begun its skyward reach.

We have had a small arsenal to keep it in line. We have several reel mowers, a couple of used gas mowers, and an electric weed eater edger. This year when we realized that the last used mower had gone kaput we decided to look into battery-run mowers.

I love the reel mowers because they are quiet and earth friendly, but sometimes they can't handle the taller or tougher grass. Mr. Ops usually runs the power mowers, but doesn't like the gas, the noise, the way they tend to break down. Neither of us wanted a mower that plugs in. That just seems too dangerous, and though we don't have a huje yard it is long enough to be problematic with electrical cords.

We researched battery mowers online and there were quite a few options. We read opinions on them and most people complained that the batteries only go for about a half hour or that they were too heavy, too small or too hard to maneuver.

We went to three stores last Sunday and finally decided to try the Greenworks 40V Lithium-Ion Dual blade mower. It has a 20 inch cutting width, two blades- we thought that made sense and makes it quite light, and two batteries so you can run it for 70 minutes. Our yard generally takes two hours to mow, but we thought that we could just do it on two separate weekend days. Some batteries take up to 12 hours to charge, but these charged in an hour each. It was $399 at Lowe's.

Mr. Ops started it up this afternoon and we marveled at how quiet it is. It sounds like a big fan. He found it easy to maneuver because of it's light weight which we think is due to two smaller blades rather than one big heavy one. It did a nice job on the grass, and has a mulching feature. It also came with a bagger, but we prefer to mulch the lawn as we go.

So we'll see how it wears and get back to you.

Just in case you were looking for inflatable Cthulhu beards and the like, Inotice they have several offerings on Archie McPhee's Chthulhu page.

They're out of the Christmas sweaters! Dang!

Hi hooooooooo.....

I had to recently clean my cache for the first time ever, and now I have some questions about recommendations for cleaning in the future.

Recommended to me was something called cCleaning. I looked it up, but it looked like it was for PCs. I have a Mac, so I looked up cCleaning for Mac and found CCleaner for Mac OS X. It says that it's for up to version 1.8, but I have 1.8.3, so I don't know if it will work. I know, I'm very cautious!

Has any one used CCleaning before? How often do you run it?

The cast of the last children's play I directed and produced gave me a $25 gift card to Amazon.com last December. Really sweet of them!

BUT I have only been able to place one small order on it (for the theater). Now, with $17.15 left on the card I'd really like to get a kurta top that's on sale there, but every time I try to order, I get in a vicious cycle of order confirmation that leads me to a slightly different order conformation screen, the leads to nowhere. So nothing ever reaches my shopping cart.

I tried to buy something else a few weeks ago, and got into the same spiral. It's so weird! Sometimes I get a message when I sign in that warns me that I may be trying to log onto a phony site. So I back down.

I sure would like to place an order, but I just can't get it through.

I even tried contacting Amazon.com by email, but even the email won't go through!

Anyone else had trouble like this? Any suggestions?