July 13, 2014

Tater is taunting me now:

The sticky tape on the top doesn't work.
She has gotten used to the taste of 'Fooey.'
The cardboard extension was just another challenge to be defeated.
Water flicks bring a look of complete disdain and she grooms herself until the water is dealt with.

Working on plan Z.
Suggestions?

Moonpie is just a spectator.

Edit to add: I am ignoring her.

July 10, 2014

Rick Perry resembles a very famous figure in his photo with PBO for immigration meeting:

Grumpy Cat is really unhappy about being compared to Governor Goodhair.

July 10, 2014

Severe thunderstorm watch here until 9pm.

NE South Carolina.
Buckling up.
Gonna get blowed away one of these days.....

July 9, 2014

"The Hard Part Of Teaching"

They never tell you in teacher school, and it's rarely discussed elsewhere. It is never, ever portrayed in movies and tv shows about teaching. Teachers rarely bring it up around non-teachers for fear it will make us look weak or inadequate.

Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post once put together a series of quotes to answer the question "How hard is teaching?" and asked for more in the comments section. My rant didn't entirely fit there, so I'm putting it here, because it is on the list of Top Ten Things They Never Tell You in Teacher School.

The hard part of teaching is coming to grips with this:

There is never enough.

There is never enough time. There are never enough resources. There is never enough you.
<snip>
But every day is still educational triage. You will pick and choose your battles, and you will always be at best bothered, at worst haunted, by the things you know you should have done but didn't. Show me a teacher who thinks she's got everything all under control and doesn't need to fix a thing for next year, and I will show you a lousy teacher. The best teachers I've ever known can give you a list of exactly what they don't do well enough yet.
<snip>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-greene/the-hardest-part-teaching_b_5554448.html

Yep!
It's the educational triage that will get you because you want to save every student in your classes. It's not possible.
I'm sure those who triage the physically injured are haunted by memories of some they had to consciously choose to not treat.
It is gut-wrenching and it can break you.

July 7, 2014

Scary near-miss over runway at Barcelona airport (Video)

A UTAir pilot appeared to come uncomfortably close to a disaster Saturday, aborting landing as another plane crossed the runway in its path.

The near-accident Saturday morning spurred Spain's aviation oversight organization AENA to launch an investigation, Spanish newspaper El País reported Monday.

The would-be crash was filmed and posted to YouTube by Miguel Angel Ramirez, a Barcelona-based aviation enthusiast.
Video at link:
<snip>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/07/scary-near-miss-over-runway-at-barcelona-airport-video

Whoa!

July 7, 2014

Another reason that Dolly Parton is the best ever :

@DollyParton:
Heard about the abandoned dog at @GlastoFest? If nobody claims her, I'll take her home to America! Ain't she cute

Loves me some Dolly!

July 7, 2014

UPDATE: I found a way to stop Tater from jumping on the teevee. Tater & I are having a real spat.

Tater has decided that jumping on top of my HD teevee & tightroping back and forth is the most fun ever.
I tried just getting her down. Ha!

Then I put tape that is sticky on both sides across the top. Cats aren't supposed to like this. Tater loves it. She glories in walking on it and smelling it.

So I went to plan C. I got a sheet of poster paper and taped it across the top. There's no access to the small flat part on top. Well, she is now insistent on attacking the tape and the poster.

Any plan Ds?

Edit:
I got a gel called "Fooey." It contains extracts from plants with nasty tastes that aren't harmful to animals.
I wish I could have gotten a picture of Tater's face when she tasted it. She still tests the areas every now and then to see if it's still nasty. That is one stubborn kitteh.
(It comes in a spray too.)

July 7, 2014

So you want to play a carrot in the orchestra huh?

Smh.......
I didn't sound nearly that good with a real one.

July 7, 2014

Please help. A consumer is getting stonewalled about a $751 charge.

<snip>
It is highly unusual for a corporation to stonewall the Haggler. But that began to happen two months ago, when the Haggler contacted a Texas-based electronics and appliance chain called Conn’s, which has more than 80 stores, mostly in the South and Southwest. He wrote on behalf of a customer named Grace Bunmi Salako Smith. She is a Nigerian immigrant with a Ph.D. in public health who lives in Dallas, where she teaches children in juvenile detention.

Last year, Ms. Smith went to a Conn’s in Dallas and bought a refrigerator and a computer, for a total of $2,587. She says that she could have bought this merchandise outright, but that she wanted to enhance her credit score so she would have better standing to make investments in real estate. So she financed it with a special offer from Conn’s, the terms of which allow her to pay no interest as long as she makes regular payments each month.

Ms. Smith says she abided by those terms, though the story becomes complicated. It’s clear that Ms. Smith made at least one late payment, as a protest because no one at Conn’s would service her then-broken refrigerator. But that late payment was explicitly forgiven by the company, as detailed in a Conn’s document that Ms. Smith scanned and forwarded to the Haggler.

In April, when she went to Conn’s to make her final payment, and close out her balance, Ms. Smith was informed that she owed $751 in interest. According to Conn’s, she had broken the terms of that zero-interest program.

So here is the question: Is Conn’s correct?
<snip>
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/your-money/the-haggler-how-to-pierce-a-deafening-silence-maybe-an-army-can-help.html

Please contact them in some way.
Mrs.Smith deserves to get a clear answer from them especially since she has a document forgiving the late payment. I don't know how or if that affects her original contract.

They may be right, but ignoring her is wrong and disrespectful.

July 7, 2014

Thing's kitteh:

Thing's kitteh

@Emergncykittens


Ha!