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In other news, Loudmouth showed up in an unexpected place today. Baker has a set of boxes that he uses as a castle. He likes to climb up on them and get behind Mrs. Prof when she's working in the morning. She'll turn around and give him his "spa time" as she calls it, petting him, brushing him, and letting him crawl into her lap for more brushing. This morning, she heard someone crawl up on the castle. She turned around and found a stranger staring back at her: How can you refuse those eyes and those whiskers?

No it doesn't, not unless you're so happy you've ceased to function as a human being. It sounds like something worthy of quite a lot of happiness to me!

Actually I can empathise. A problem that you have gotten used to and found ways to work around is still a problem. And when it is suddenly gone, it can feel like a disproportionately huge relief just because you can finally ditch the workaround and stop worrying about it.

I think Arthur is talking about the Will of Magic.

Loudmouth and Baker are back to chasing each other through the back of the house early in the morning. Baker then takes his midday siesta, after which (i.e., after Mrs. Prof comes home) he becomes a pill again until he gets his nighttime petting and loving session. I can not take Mrs. Prof's place on this—he'll only let Mrs. Prof do the petting session. Here's Baker thoroughly worn out for the day, on The Petting Pillow Throne:

"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they fight dirty and cheat at cards." -- J. R. R. Tolkien, liberally paraphrased

Does "Spoken word" count? If so, just make a series of recordings of your pain blogs here. Call it "(some) Doctors suck and my back is on fire" or words to that effect.

No urpage! Loudmouth seems to have finished off the Science Diet overnight. He ate more of it than the meat from the wet food. I'm surprised. No barfs to be found anywhere in the house. He's still got a few more days of lubricant gel to take, but I think we may have crossed a very important threshold here. I don't know if we're going to continue feeding Baker the EVO or not. Knowing Mrs. Prof's penchant for simplification, probably not, unless he absolutely won't eat the Science Diet.

Upon due consideration, I think Elliot's brain would operate more efficiently if it wore better shoes.

Today's TWB. A better description of Monty Python hasn't been done.

It "burned off" after about an hour or so. Really right after I posted, TBH I like the new place, and there is lots of things I can walk to vs being out in the middle of suburbia with nothing of interest with in miles. Later to day I am going to check out the library. Plus there is is a game store "The Ogre's Lair" that is moving to a place like less than a 1/3 of a mile away. Maybe closer. I live with in 6 blocks of my brother and his family now, so if all else fails, I can drop by to see them if I need to.

OT, my favorite Yoda shirt was in a pet store, in size X-Small, reading, "Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?"

Ecchi angel?

It's been a while (and my humour has not improved) Edit for NP:

This one is a thing of beauty.

Well, you could try putting a litterbox in the tub, see if he'll consent to using it if it's in what he considers the right location. I had friends who just kept one of their cats' litterboxes in the bathtub of the spare bathroom as a matter of course, feeling it was the best out-of-the-way spot they could find. If he'll use it, make sure you keep it really clean for a while so it's more likely he'll go on liking it.

Mrs. Prof says the cats were fighting last night ... until they ran out of energy ... Tuckered out. Pardon the stacked laundry on the left. BTW, the thing that looks like a gun rack on the right is actually a cat tree. Loudmouth's ear looks like it's sticking up through the curved center bed of the tree. Baker's the only one of them that uses the top rack.

I am nonetheless happier knowing that you have a better doctor this time. I trust he will do the best he can and that over time you will see improvement.

A friend of mine once owned a Ford Probe. Yes, the jokes were made.

Have you checked for hidden compartments? ComEd has informed us that our practice will be without power from 9am to 11am Saturday. They told us this on Thursday. Apparently a transformer by the nearby Montessori school is leaking something, and we're downstream from it. We are normally open 8am to noon on Saturdays. This is about the worst two hours they could pick that day, and since Saturdays are probably our most reliably busy day, it kinda cuts into our income to not be able to see appointments. No x-rays, no microscopes, no centrifuge to spin blood samples, no computer to see the schedule or make appointments or take in money and credit it to accounts.... The boss decided to heck with it, moved the already-scheduled appointments either to other days or to between 8am and 9:30am (she rather expects them to be late in shutting off and reconnecting), and declared we're just going to close early. I may actually get out of there by 10am. Fermilab is holding their 50th anniversary open house on Saturday, and I got signed up for it a few weeks ago. It's sold out now. It's happening from 10am to 4pm, so normally I'd have missed half of it, minimum. Closing early means I'll get to see a lot more, plus there's sure to be more walking, which is a good thing. Balance that with the chronic anxiety of being a major part of a small business which needs a certain amount of income to stay afloat, and you get the ambivalence this thread is devoted to. I'm thinking it's more of a happy than anything else, by a good margin, but still mixed feelings.

... and it's pronounced "Nikto." Not "Nechtkhafo."

Am i the only one that was disapointed Dan did not link to that in the comments?

I guarantee that whatever is ordered will not be capable of the summoning of elder gods.

So sorry some jerk came in and messed up what must be a mostly-nice place (for you to hang out there). *hugs*

My Italian twin seem to be in a business now, where giving out 25 Euro coupons for petrol is thought to be a good thing.

Precisely a cupful. Unfortunately, near as I can tell the standard cup size in the US and what I was taught was a cupful are two different things. At a rough guess, the cup I used was at least twice as big as what makes a cupful in American measurements. At least. Given that I was measuring out sugar at the time, this did not work out very well. (I dunno. Maybe an American cup is an 'A' cup and a Danish cup is a 'D' cup? That could explain a few things.)

Well, he may be sick, but he's not acting like it. He's doing his affectionate cat routine, jumping up on the sofa and wanting attention. This time he jumped off, but I figured I could get him back up if I showed him his cat brush (he loves to be brushed (both do, so much that they have their own brushes)). Worked like a charm. He jumped back up and let me brush him. Halfway through the session, he started kneading my left leg with his paws—something he's only started since Thursday and something that I feel is a real indication of trust. (He forgives me for making him eat the dry food.) The kneading transitioned into a sitting position, so for the last quarter of the brushing, I had a lap cat! That's something I never get from Baker: he only does that with Mrs. Prof, and again, brushing is involved.

She's got it! Yeah, baby, she's got it!

The Guy Family, with both parents working as rent-a-guards, can't afford to pay for real names.

Edit: this is why I don't post to begin with, I always have to edit it immediately because of something going strange. Edit the second: given up on trying to embed the image, it's not even that good https://imgur.com/a/fd0SI "Distastefully compressed to barely scrape by on attachment limits, but here it is! (which I only made because I'm (fairly) sure Ashley is one of the participants in this game and also because I wanted to colour the "applause" but didn't want to edit the previous slay. )"

It does look like it, yes. I am glad it arrived in time. And you are welcome.

She would have found it heartwarming for someone else's funeral, but not her own. Too much fuss over her, she'd think. I think. I think she'd prefer one of the funerals where everyone sent flowers, just like they did for her sister-in-law. I have it on good word that my father spent $15,000.00 on the entire funeral/burial. She wouldn't have liked one person taking over like that. (Of course, that could be me speaking, but I'm going by her reaction at her sister-in-law's funeral, which I did attend.) But, once you put something in the hands of my father, he's going to take it and squeeze it until it fits the shape of his palms. He couldn't do that with his father's funeral, but there was no one to stop him with his mother's funeral. I'm sure the flowers @The Old Hack and I sent probably irked him a tad bit. Displays of individuality, they were. I don't care. She was my grandmother, and I wasn't going to play by his rules if I couldn't attend. She needed to know I was there in spirit, at least. I'm sorry, I went on too long with this. Probably too deep, too. EDIT: If you look at the pink cross, you'll see what a commoner's $171 will buy you. Lord knows how much of that $15,000 my father spent went toward flowers.

This one makes me cackle madly.

I'll take it. Thanks. 9:42 a.m. CDT 20170904. It's been a few days since I tried my protein coffee. I gave it another shot this morning. I think that's the last shot I'll be giving it. It's given me an upset stomach. I hadn't eaten anything, but that usually doesn't make a difference with coffee, protein or not. And, stubborn-assed me, I'm not going to give it the courtesy of a Zofran or a Phenergan. It can sit down there and grumble all it wants—I'm not giving in. All you're getting is a simethicone gel-cap, jerk. Can you tell my mood is less than optimal? I don't know why. Could be the proximity to my grandmother's funeral. Could also be the footnote that my sister added to the funeral announcement that I saw after sending flowers (and after making pleas here) about, "In lieu of flowers, send donations to ...." Well, by God, she's my grandmother, and if I can't be at her funeral, then there's going to be some sort of physical presence from me (and @The Old Hack and anyone else who sent something—thank you!) there for her service! But I digress. Mrs. Prof has been trying to treat my depression with varying forms of chocolate. A shake, pudding, and most recently, brownies from Pizza Hut. I'm going to let her have the last brownie, just for her being nice. Gotta say it's perked me up a little bit, as long as I don't invoke a Zofran emergency. Earlier, I would have just brooded about the above two paragraph topics. With some theobromine in my system, I'm able to properly vent in the right directions. I think I'm going to go and get a regular cup of coffee now and see how my stomach handles it. EDIT: Regular coffee helped tremendously. Going back to toss the protein mix in the trash.

First thought that I had was about this: Comic for Monday "Oh god it's Friday. WHY IS IT FRIDAY." This amused me for some reason.

Here, now you can give two!

Are you kidding? Sometimes when the F1 drivers cut it too close when going near the border, their engines automatically shift to neutral.

Come, come now. After you move, join the 20th century. We'll take up a collection and get you a decent, inexpensive Sharp microwave. They last for decades.

I always subscribed to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 mantra on those: My favorite part of the transformations (after the animations) was the music. It always had a 1980s American Game Show feel to it. "Sailor Jupiter, Come on down! You're the next contestant on, 'The Senshi is Right!'"

Addendum: for the first time ever, Loudmouth jumped up on the sofa next to me! He wanted a petting session, which I gladly gave. It went on for about five minutes or so until he heard something at the back door that made him run toward it with a growl in his throat. Still, another barrier has fallen! EDIT: that barrier has been smashed. Loudmouth has been next to me for almost 30 minutes now, just sitting and relaxing, looking regal the whole while. I can't take a photo because I'd spook him. Drat. I wonder what'll happen when Mrs. Prof and/or Baker come in here.

As long as it's not aimed at Pandora, that would be epic. If aimed at Pandora, well, less epic, more feels inducing.

So, back in 9th grade, early in the year, my English teacher pulled me aside. She told me that the entire last year she had watched me be bored out of my skull during her classes and always do my material perfectly while barely trying. She told me that she had nothing to offer me at the level of English we were supposed to learn and suggested that I for the rest of the year go do my own thing during her classes. She'd let me do the exams normally and all I had to do was to be quiet about it as it was a bit irregular. At the end of the year I passed with top marks. Then we repeated it in 10th grade. If there was one thing this taught me, it was that self study can be incredibly valuable if it is a subject you are truly interested in. And I loved reading, writing and speaking English. At least in part because so much of the 'great literature' we had to read in Danish was incredibly depressing and dull, and I liked science fiction. By the time I turned 13 (late 7th grade) I had exhausted the sparse Danish science fiction section in the library. So I got hold of a brick of a Heinlein novel my mother had lying around and read it through the brute force method of looking up every word I did not understand, which was about one in three. It took me three months to finish it, but I did it. And as it happened, around the middle of the book the characters started to discuss science fiction writers they loved. Armed with their names I went to the library and had it order books by them written in English (no Danish translations available in most cases, anyway.) During the entirety of 8th grade I barely glanced at my English school material and went directly to what I considered to be the real deal, books by Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, everything else I could find by Heinlein and even E.E. 'Doc' Smith and his Lensman series. It was for this reason that I at the start of 9th grade was so far beyond the curriculum that it wasn't even funny. I remain grateful to my teacher that she didn't make me sit through it. At that point it was about as challenging to me as a Richard Scarry book but didn't have even a hundredth of the entertainment value. I mean, at least I would have enjoyed reading a Richard Scarry book.

I wish there were something I could say or do to make this all better, to lift this burden from you. I know it's not that easy with Depression. Whatever help our support is, please take it. Know that you are not alone, there are people here who care about you, are rooting for you, and who would truly miss you if you weren't checking in with us, even if it's to vent and grumble and complain.

That is a tall assumption. There is ONE trait in common for aberrations we can be certain of. They feared death so much that they were willing to pay any price to avoid it. Trying to ram this into a specific category of mental disorder is as simplistic as saying that they were all members of the same political party. Fear of death could motivate even people who consider losing empathy big price instead of advantage, yes. Also, there are lot of people who hate (almost) everyone even without having mental disorder. And when Sirleck told Magus he should become aberration to get rid of empathy, Magus rejected ... but there ARE people who feel empathy and don't want to. And, well ... I still think there can be people who just didn't read the manual carefully enough. Although those would likely count as "not smart" ...

My guess? Swampy found an alternate method of opening that door.

The Prof approves.

Translation devices never cease to amaze me. Twitter has an exceptionally talented one. I received a tweet that was basically a mocking comment on a previous one. It went something like, "LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL *gasp for breath* LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL." At the bottom of the tweet, Twitter kindly offered, "Translate from Filipino." To think that I could have gone my whole life without knowing that that was actually Filipino. I am truly blessed.

The "extra strength" pills are 500mg each, the migraine pills are 250mg each, so 1ES and 2 migraine is the same as 2 ES, just with caffeine and aspirin. It's right at the limit, I'm aware of the wait 6 hours for the next dose effect.