Small Talk: Behavioral Gabbing Unit

[zannej]

Man, its getting cold so quickly. The temperature seems inversely proportionate to the number of cats that want to sleep on my bed. Last night I had about 7 of them on me.

 

Finally got my car back Friday evening and they still hadn't washed it. They had problems with the paint job and had to keep redoing it so it can't be washed until Monday. But it looks beautiful and now I can drive the non-gas guzzling car. Gas guzzler is more comfortable and has more capacity, but the other one has 4wd and can get so much farther on so much less.

[SSAHotchner]

My kitty slept inside the other night when it went down to freezing overnight. She was a good girl and didn't wake me up until almost 6:00. But no way was I feeding her at 6:00 a.m. She's peeved with me because her stomach clock is still on daylight savings time.

[idiotwaltz]

"Getting cold" where I'm currently living is 21 degrees Celsius. People are breaking out their winter coats!

Meanwhile, having hailed from the frosty tundras of Canada, I am all, "Feels like summer, eh?"

[zannej]

My cats ripped open a 50lb bag of self leveling flooring. I had to tape it up, put it in a plastic garbage bag, and then put that inside an empty cat food bag bc the garbage bag will rip. now they can't claw it. Then the dumbos managed to push the bathroom door closed, knocked over a jar of coins, and peed on the coins. I locked them out of the bathroom for now and they are not happy with me at all. I still love my kitties though.

 

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get myself motivated to prep the bathroom for the self-leveling flooring round 2 (first round did not go well). The lights don't work so I have to wait until morning.

 

Oh, and I'm going to try to print out some pictures with some brief info on plumbing codes to further piss off the owner of one of the hardware stores after he told my friend to use a sanitary tee in a horizontal position (which violates all of the current plumbing codes in the US) instead of a wye + 1/8 bend or sanitary combo wye. I want to post the printout at the store near the wyes and tees. I'm planning to put them up in both of the hardware stores in town. I pissed off the owner when I told him, as politely as possible, that the tee wasn't allowed to be used like that because it allowed splashing. He gave me stinkeye and told my friend to get that and then glared at me when my friend wasn't looking. Normally he's a nice guy, but he doesn't know jack about plumbing. Hell, he's sill selling S-trap kits and S-traps are a code violation. (I've been studying residential plumbing code off and on for the past few months).

Edited November 5, 2014 by zannej

[idiotwaltz]

The nearby bookstore was having a closing sale and I accidentally bought porn. The worst part is I didn't even realize it was porn until I looked it up on Goodreads. 

[zannej]

The nearby bookstore was having a closing sale and I accidentally bought porn. The worst part is I didn't even realize it was porn until I looked it up on Goodreads. 

LOL!

 

I feel the need to vent. Remember in one of the threads how we talked about some people with children caring less about kids than people without them? Well, I have griped about this bitch before... but she has taken it to new levels. it's bad enough she follows my friend around and slaps him saying "you gonna hit me? you gonna hit me?" as he's trying to get away so he doesn't lose it and hit her. Anyway, my friend was over helping assemble some furniture and she kept texting him and pestering him. She hates to be home with her own kids-- when I went over earlier the front door was unlocked, she didn't answer when we knocked, and her two kids (ages 2 and 5) were unsupervised making a huge mess. I found her in another room just staring at her phone in the dark. When the 5-year-old said he was hungry she yelled at him. Fastforward to her texting my friend and he suddenly says "What the fuck? She's bitching that she broke her hairbrush over (insert name of the 5-year-old)". She previously hit the kid so violently she somehow managed to break her glasses. Last week she decided to take a nap 20 minutes before he got home from school and didn't wake up for over an hour-- leaving the 5-year-old locked outside in the rain for an hour... DCFS always tells me that unless I actually saw her hitting the kid, they "can't do anything".... Ugh.... She treats my friend like crap, is a horrible mother, and her son will probably hate women and end up a serial killer or violent prick... He pretty much only misbehaves after she beats him or when she's around. He's a good kid when he's just around my friend... My friend keeps talking himself out of kicking her out bc she's "useless" and can't support herself. 

 

Sorry, just needed to vent. I am not overly fond of children, but it really pisses me off when people abuse/neglect their kids. 

[idiotwaltz]

Gosh, those poor kids! It's always driven me crazy that you need to take classes and be properly vetted and sometimes even have your home inspected before you can adopt an animal from the SPCA (I can't get a cat because I live on a high floor and I don't have window screens) but anyone can become a parent just by having sex.

I hope your friend is able to extract hinself from that relationship soon, the woman sounds totally toxic. Those poor kids though :(

[zannej]

And the kid was doing better with my friend using time-outs or sending him to his room. Those things are far more effective. The more the kid gets hit the more he acts out-- and he doesn't act out when he's around my friend-- only around the mother. But the stuff she gets mad about and hits him for is not stuff that is even all that bad. I think she just gets in bad moods.. Anyway, my friend's discipline was working but then the bitch's father stepped in and said the kid was being sent to his room too much-- this is a guy who beat the crap out of his own son on a regular basis and who hits the kid as well. Hell, he hit the kid's mother when she was an adult...

 

I really hope my friend sticks to his guns, gets footage of the hag hitting the kid, and uses it to get custody of his daughter when he finally kicks her to the curb. 

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I can't remember who said it, but there's a saying that while being a parent is the hardest job in the world to do, it's the easiest job in the world to get. All you need is a flat surface.

 

It's actually incredibly difficult to get a child removed from the custody of his/her parents, particularly the mother. That's why things like nanny cams are so popular now, to record events if abuse is suspected. Since your friend knows the kid is being hit, he should contact a lawyer now, someone with experience who knows the system. If CPS is at least marginally aware of the situation, as in there have been reports, they might be able to recommend someone if he/you can find a sympathetic social worker. It sounds as if this woman has some kind of disorder, or at least anger management issues. I'd suggest counseling for her as well, but maybe that's already been tried.

[idiotwaltz]

And the kid was doing better with my friend using time-outs or sending him to his room. Those things are far more effective. The more the kid gets hit the more he acts out-- and he doesn't act out when he's around my friend-- only around the mother. But the stuff she gets mad about and hits him for is not stuff that is even all that bad. I think she just gets in bad moods.. Anyway, my friend's discipline was working but then the bitch's father stepped in and said the kid was being sent to his room too much-- this is a guy who beat the crap out of his own son on a regular basis and who hits the kid as well. Hell, he hit the kid's mother when she was an adult...

 

I really hope my friend sticks to his guns, gets footage of the hag hitting the kid, and uses it to get custody of his daughter when he finally kicks her to the curb. 

 

For your friend's sake, I hope he gets away from her soon and take his daughter too. I feel awful for the boy though, since your friend seems to be the only stable adult in his life and if the child is attached to him, there is going to be a lot of heartbreak when your friend leaves. I hope the kid gets some decent intervention (and loving caregivers) eventually before his anger/attachment issues really fuck him over.

[zannej]

Well, the kid initially didn't like my friend because the mother talks crap about him all the time. She has not gotten any counseling. I don't know if she would even listen. She has low comprehension when it comes to things and just doesn't listen to people. They will give her advice and tell her something and she'll turn around and keep doing stuff that she's been told is wrong or doesn't work. I do think part of it is because her father was an abusive prick and her mother left when she was young.

 

My state recently started a "Faith in Families" initiative which makes it even harder to take kids away from their mothers. They didn't say how they were doing it, but they said their plan was to cut the number of children in foster care in half and have the kids spend less time away from parents and such... I think the bottom line is, they don't want to pay to take care of these kids and they are phrasing it in such a way to make it seem like they are protecting the families, when really, they are probably putting the kids back with unfit parents. I knew a woman who was reported to DCFS for beating her kids in public at least 4 times. The woman even said she wished they would take her kids away because they were brats. Kids are still with her. It's really sad and it just sheds light on how much reform we need and how there needs to be more education on dealing with other people and especially on how to deal with children. Since I live in an area where they think you have to hit kids to teach them respect, I think its going to be a loong time before anything changes though. The teachers were enraged when the laws changed so that only the principals could paddle the children a few years back.

 

Sorry, venting again. It's one of my pet peeves. I'm completely against corporal punishment in schools. I've seen it horribly abused.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

zaneej, if your state has any kind of child advocacy services, your friend could contact them and they might be able to recommend someone. It sounds as if the kid needs a lawyer of his own, someone who will look out for his rights. And possibly counseling sooner rather than later, before the bad habits he's learning sink in for the rest of his life. I think spanking should be kept out of schools as well. That's not a teacher's job, although occasionally I can see the temptation. I don't think spanking by parents is abuse, but I do know it can be taken too far. But that's usually when the people in question shouldn't even be allowed to be near a cactus, much less an infant.

[normasm]

CoStar, unfortunately, and I admit I don't know for sure in Louisiana (where Zannej is), but in GA, a child cannot have his own lawyer. If, when Zannej has called child services or DFCS, they had sent a social worker out there, if they had seen signs of neglect, they might bring the little boy in for evaluation, and have the home inspected, and the woman interviewed. In that circumstance, they might also interview the woman's partner, the guy who hates the way this bitch treats her kids, one of which is his. But more than likely, they would return the child to the home and schedule another visit. That's about all they can do.

It's very hard to take a minor child out of its home, at least in the South. I've worked on cases where both parents were in jail or prison, but because they would not give up parental rights, the child had to stay in the foster system until age 18. It's awful.

[zannej]

Yeah, kids don't have a lot of rights here. It's pretty assbackwards. There has been some progress at least in some regards, but there is a long way to go. 

 

On a happier note, my brother cooked liver tonight. :-)

[Cobalt Stargazer]

So here's a thing that happened to me just tonight. An online acquaintance of mine has a website, and she asked me out of the blue if I would like to write recaps of CM, do reviews, and speculate about the show for it! She knows I'm obsessed with the show, and I immediately accepted. It is not a paying gig, but I'm looking forward to it, if only because I can go back to the beginning on Netflix and watch it all over again. Wish me luck, or pray for me. Whichever comes first. :-)

[zannej]

That's awesome, Cobalt!

 

I've got the flu right now and none of the medicine I've tried seems to do anything. Some of my cats have colds as well so there has been some synchronized sneezing. Earlier my cat sneezed and I sneezed and we looked at each other for a second, and then she nuzzled my face.

 

Meanwhile I've been trying to figure out what fittings I need to fix up the plumbing in my house. I know there are some improper fittings and some monkey tried to wet-vent the shower through the sink without a P-trap on the shower and also had no vent for the sink (the vent is needed to allow pressure balancing to avoid creating a vacuum which siphons water out of the traps. The water needs to stay in the traps to keep sewer gases from coming up through the drains). Some monkey also used a pressure fitting T instead of a sanitary tee for the shower. It may have been the same monkey that installed a tee instead of a wye in a horizontal position for another bathroom. And don't get me started on the fernco fitting for the tee from the toilet that doesn't even have straps. One thing is for certain, I'm going to need a lot of 2" and 3" PVC. I probably need to take out my entire main soil pipe and redo it at the proper slope. It needs to slope down one inch every eight feet.

 

and now I'm feeling groggy and probably not making much sense. LOL.

[JMO]

A snowy day-before-Thanksgiving and the Hallmark Channel returned to my cable lineup.  I'm living a card.

[JMO]

Just an update, because you were all so kind when I blew off steam before.

 

No more raccoon 'chatter', although they've taken the winter off before.  But at least they're not driving me crazy....until next summer.

 

My heart is just fine, it turns out.  But I didn't find that out until after I'd forked over the $$$ for an AWD vehicle so I could get up the long, steep driveway without having to shovel myself in every time it snows.  Which it already has.  On the plus side, I can haul pretty much anything I need now.

 

Except a refrigerator, which someone else will have to haul here tomorrow.  As of this afternoon, mine is RIP. 

 

I purposely didn't participate in Black Friday, but I'll bet I've spent more today than most of the country!

[zannej]

JMO, sounds like some excitement. In some ways I miss the snow, but in others I'm glad that it is very rare here. It was great when I was a kid and would not have to go to school. I'd make snow angels, go sledding in my backyard, build snowmen, have snowball fights-- I loved the snow. Now I'm a curmudgeon and just want to be warm and comfortable. LOL.

 

Hopefully you'll get your $$$ worth out of the ATV though. 

[idiotwaltz]

 

In some ways I miss the snow, but in others I'm glad that it is very rare here.

 

Am I the only person in the world who can live a long and happy life without snow? I grew up in Canada, and though it made for some beautiful winters, it does not make up for the shoveling or wet socks or nearly freezing to death because you can't get onto the bus which is never on time to begin with but is even WORSE when the roads are shut down and all of Vancouver is freaking the fuck out. And we didn't even get that much snow in Vancouver! It was mostly rain, Chinese food, and smoking pot. 

 

I'm feeling particularly grumpy today. I lost my metro card right after I topped it off. Then I went home to discover my bank is saying I haven't paid my credit card bills in two months, because they converted to e-statements without telling me and my email for that account is one I haven't used for seven years. And you know how I found out? I was LOCKED OUT of my online banking account because I got the password wrong three times and I had to spend 30 minutes waiting to talk to a human being in order to reset my password. Who was still unable to help me solve my overdue payment crisis, which only exists because of the bank's own negligence!  

 

On top of everything, one of my close friends is hooking up with this disgusting sleazebag who is SO OBVIOUSLY USING HER and she's all, "I can't believe you're not happy for me." Jesus, girl, YOU ARE A DIVORCE LAWYER. How do you even listen to bullshit he says about "I'm not only being nice to you because I want you to help me in the office since I'm not doing a very good job and the partners are catching on. I really love you. Why? Erm, because you helped me ... rediscover happiness." 

 

I want some frontal lobe damage so I can legally-insanely smack the shit out of Sleazebag Boyfriend (or not really boyfriend, because they don't want their relationship to interfere with the office's dynamics.) 

Edited December 6, 2014 by idiotwaltz

[missmycat]

Well I hope nobody here was a fan of the show Stalker because it's pretty much a goner. I myself never really cared to watch it. Anyways CBS had only given it a 20 episode order to begin with.That is never a good sign.But even worse CBS is only going to show 17 out of the 20 because effective March 4th it will be off the schedule having been replaced by CSI Cyber. 

[normasm]

I watched (sort of) one episode and hated it.

[zannej]

idiotwaltz, I know quite a few people who hate snow. I had fond memories of it because I was only around it as a child. I spent almost 10 years in the tropics without any snow, and you know that old saying "Absence makes the heart grow fonder". 

 

And ugh about the bank and the e-statements. I bet you anything they did that on purpose so they could get late fees built up. Banks have some tricky ways of getting higher penalty fees. And of course, they will probably claim it is your fault for not having updated your e-mail address. They should have sent written notice via mail to say that they were going to e-statements.

 

Also ugh on the girl falling for the guy's crap.

[zannej]

I watched maybe two episodes of Stalker. The first was the pilot which left me pissed off with the ending. The second time I couldn't find my remote to change the station and was only half-watching as I played video games on my computer.

 

I've started watching Agents of SHIELD and Forever (with Ioan Gruffud). The latter actually has some profiling and uses a lot of stuff I wish they would still do on CM. It also has a guy who played one of the interns on Bones as a regular. 

 

I heard that because of the full schedule, CBS is reducing the episode numbers of multiple series to 23 instead of 24-- but it is not a sign of any problems with those shows.

[idiotwaltz]

Ugh, something went wrong ... anyway, thanks for listening to my angry rant, zaneej. I just needed to vent.

Edited December 7, 2014 by idiotwaltz

[Watermelon]

I've ended up watching all the episodes. They can cancel if after this year, it's not really the type of show that even seems like it would last 3-4 years, but I need good endings on all the storylines.

 

I hate shows that end with no real ending (Girlfriends, years ago).

[zannej]

I hate it when shows end on a cliffhanger because they got canceled when they were hoping to get renewed. Happened to "The Pretender", "The Profiler", and "Once A Thief". Or when a show gets canceled (or just not renewed) and the producers decide to take it out on the fans by having horrible tragic endings. The ending to "Merlin" really pissed me off and "Forever Knight" also had a depressing last season and ending. I thought ST:TNG went out in a good way though.

 

Last night PBS had some newly ordered episodes of "Poirot" so I stayed up late watching them. I wish it wasn't like $300 to get the DVDs.

[Old Dog]

I'm kind of looking forward to The Librarians which starts tonight here in the UK.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I watched the premiere last night, and it was pretty good.

[Old Dog]

I watched the premiere last night, and it was pretty good.

Thanks Cobalt. I'm looking forward to it even more now!

[Droogie]

OK, so... I have had several vodka tonics and am feeling pretty chatty. How did all you folks come up with your user name? I just made an account really quickly, never thinking I would post (see how that turned out), and picked a name randomly -- I am a huge Megadeth fan and Dave Mustaine calls his fans droogies after A Clockwork Orange. Dumb reason, but there you have it.

[normasm]

That's funny, droogie, I thought of ACO when I first saw your name!

Here, my name is a bastardization of my mother's name. Elsewhere, it was a convenient play on my name (but which I no longer like). Still elsewhere, I use an old nickname that I had from LiveJournal, which comes from an old Captain Beefheart song.

[missmycat]

missmycat is short for I miss my cat. At the time i had just lost my beautiful little girl tabby and was still hurting very much over having lost her.

 

And speaking of cats my brother and his wife recently got two new baby kittens, as Garcia would call them, and I am so freaking jealous.

[Old Dog]

My name is because I am the oldest fangirl on this board. I have watched far too much TV for more years than I care to admit to and you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

When I was a teenager, I listened to a lot of hair metal, both because I liked it and to get on my parents' nerves. There was a one-hit wonder band called Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, which I feel confident that none of you have ever heard of as they appeared and disappeared almost in the same breath. Cobalt Stargazer was the stage name of one of the guitar players, and it struck a chord (no pun intended) because it sounded like the name of a science fiction character. Flash forward to 2002 when I discovered the dearly departed TWOP and had to choose a user name, and I chose CS. It was either that or Flash Bastard, which even I realized would probably not fly. :-P

[idiotwaltz]

I've been using this name since ... I got internet at home, which must've been around 1999. Idiot Waltz is a song by Shivaree and it was played in an episode of Dawson's Creek. I don't even remember liking the song that much, I just liked the title. It stuck with me and I've been using this as one of several internet handles since. 

[JMO]

'Just My Opinion' because, well....

 

[normasm]

When I was a teenager, I listened to a lot of hair metal, both because I liked it and to get on my parents' nerves. There was a one-hit wonder band called Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, which I feel confident that none of you have ever heard of as they appeared and disappeared almost in the same breath. Cobalt Stargazer was the stage name of one of the guitar players, and it struck a chord (no pun intended) because it sounded like the name of a science fiction character. Flash forward to 2002 when I discovered the dearly departed TWOP and had to choose a user name, and I chose CS. It was either that or Flash Bastard, which even I realized would probably not fly. :-P

OK, you win the internet, and the workday has not even begun! (Zodiac Mindwarp….. you made that up, rite?)

[Cobalt Stargazer]

OK, you win the internet, and the workday has not even begun! (Zodiac Mindwarp….. you made that up, rite?)

 

Check it!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac_Mindwarp_and_the_Love_Reaction

[normasm]

Jesus, you win the internet for the next week! How did I not know and love these crazy people?! Although I will be singing "all bound for Mu-Mu Land" all day….

Edited December 10, 2014 by normasm

[zannej]

I know this has nothing to do with the current conversation, but I just fell off my porch and landed right in the spot where my brother pisses. My dogs just stared at me and yawned. The funny thing was, I had been watching footage of a movie with some really cool dancing (7 brides for 7 something... can't remember) and when I started to lose my balance my legs started flailing a bit almost like much less coordinated versions of the dance moves. I managed to stop myself from falling with a few steps but couldn't regain my balance fully and down I went. I almost wish I had it on video because it must have looked pretty damn funny-- although it didn't feel very fun. Ever have one of those days when you feel like you should have just stayed in bed? LOL.

 

Interesting origins for usernames thus far. Mine is basically an abbreviated version of my name. I decided to use something different than one I used elsewhere-- the other one I had since about 1995.

[normasm]

Oh, god, zannej, you just made me laugh so hard! This is why I'm glad I don't have brothers (or a husband who pisses off the porch)!

 

When you were talking about 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, I started singing "Bless your beautiful hide…"

[zannej]

That's it! The dancing in that movie is fantastic! I told my brother what happened and he laughed and said it served me right and complained about what he thought was cat pee on the bathroom floor and he somehow blamed me for it.. Only no cats had been in there and then I realized the floor around the toilet is wet and the toilet bowl water level is low. It means the wax seal is broken and the toilet is leaking. I'm also getting bubbling up in the tub upstream of the toilet whenever the toilet flushes.. So that means a clog-- which is probably what broke the wax seal. So now I'm going to have to snake the drain near the septic tank, drain the toilet completely, move it, and replace the wax ring. It's going to be very shitty. I know I have a very long plumbing snake lying around somewhere at least. Will have to glove up and hope for the best. I should probably mess with the flush valve assembly in the toilet tank to get a better position on the chain to see if it improves flushing. Although that is going to suck because my shoulder and neck are very sore.

 

Man, I sound like a complainer... LOL. I know things could be worse and at least I know how to snake drains and I helped install the toilet in the first place so I know how to do it...

[normasm]

Yeah, I was just gonna say, better this happened to you than me when hubs is out of town… anyway, hope it's not too hard to fix. You can always think about Russ Tamblyn and Jacques D'Amboise leaping about in multicolored shirts as you snake.

[zannej]

LOL. Well score one for team Zannej. Victory! For once having small arms came in handy. I literally had to jam my arm all the way past the elbow into the sewer pipe cleanout to maneuver the last 10 or 15 feet of the snake around a bend. I had a 50' snake. I pulled up a chair and started feeding it in. My cow came over to nuzzle me at one point. When I was elbow deep in the pipe, one of my dogs came over and wanted to be petted. I finally heard a sound of gushing water and watched as the nasty crud flowed down. I spent a few more minutes moving the snake around to make sure the clog was fully cleared (well, as cleared as I could get it with not being able to see that far). Had my brother do a flush test and then went and washed up. Hopefully it will stay clear. I'll have to see about replacing the wax ring tomorrow. I'm a bit too tired to mess with that today.

[normasm]

I wish you were my neighbor. Or that at least i had a cow that would come over and nuzzle me. 

 

I don't want to fall off my porch into my brother's pee-pee.

[zannej]

LOL. It would be nicer if the cow didn't have huge horns. She isn't very aware of them when she tries to snuggle. When she was a baby, I used to sit outside and just rub her face, hug her, and sing to her. She followed me around like a puppy. She has a bad habit of trying to rub her forehead on me, but the horns get in the way when she turns her head. She likes to be scratched behind the ears and horns though.

 

I wouldn't recommend falling in urine-soaked leaves. It was not fun. Could have been worse though.

[moxiepip]

I really enjoyed Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Robert Goren is very similar to Reid; both of them have schizophrenic mothers they are responsible for, fathers that abandoned them, and they are very

cerebral. Goren solves the cases using profiling as well as other detective methods. One difference is Goren's character is a bit more socially aware and is much more comfortable around the ladies. I've seen a few fanfics that feature Goren and Reid, maybe one or two. Toward the end of the series, the writing nosedived and they heaped too much angst on Goren's character but overall I was sad to see it canceled.

Edited December 12, 2014 by moxiepip

[zannej]

Yeah, I really did like Goren. It's a shame that the actor had so many health problems and they had to reduce the number of episodes he was in to accommodate that. I wonder if that was ultimately why the series ended. It was interesting to see Logan return to the show for awhile. I had liked him on the original L&O-- although not as much as Lenny.

[normasm]

Well, this is not a surprise. Go on CMRT or EW.com. They are doing a new spinoff. Great idea. (I'm on my iPad, so no linking).