Small Talk: On The Outside

[Michichick]

@CrazyDog, best wishes for your kitty!

[CrazyDog]

Thank you :) I'm taking science classes for a midlife career change into an entry-level transition to veterinary med, so I enjoy posts about people's pets, etc. I hope this thread gets some love so we can keep some of the off topics going. The BB posters are a fun group!

[Devils Chick]

My apologies for the kitty discussions as well. This season is just so darn boring! I only jabbed myself with a needle once in the six months of giving fluids. Funny, I barely touched my finger with the needle and didn't notice. When I pulled the needle out, I saw blood on my hand and thought it was my cat's. I felt terrible and searched all over him but saw no blood. It was a relief to see it coming from my own finger! Once you and your cat get the hang of it, it's not that bad.

@CrazyDog Sorry to hear about your cat too. To jump on the sick kitty train, my Maine Coon was recently diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. 

[Nashville]

Gonna be out-of-pocket the next couple of days - dragon boats are running again this Saturday!!!

[GalvDuck]

Has anyone ever determined who Zingbot is?  I'm convinced it's Julie.  Same posture, same "but first..." attitude with the hands, and even though the voice is robotized, same resonance.  

But since IMDB is no longer available, and this forum is searchable to a degree, I haven't been able to find out.  

Anybody know?  Has it been discussed?

[Callaphera]

I dunno but whenever I've referred to Zingbot, I've always said "the poor intern in the costume". The person inside almost passed out one year because of the heat and it definitely wasn't Julie inside. 

[mojoween]

Huh.  Eight years ago on this date I posted on FB that I was very happy with who won BB and since I'm way too lazy to check I'm just going to assume it was Jordan.

Speaking of pet med, a few weeks ago our Mookie was acting funny where he wouldn't jump down from anywhere, he would just gingerly go from level to level and then step down if he was up high.  I took him to the vet and after palpating his spine the vet said it was a lumbar sprain and he gave me the kitty version of Flexeril and said that Mookie would eat it with no problem.

And hot damn he did!  He gobbled them like they were Temptations (which we call donuts because once at the vet I saw a chart that showed the equivalent of how many cat treats would equal a donut.  It's 10 Temptations.)  I do not know what that pill was made of but he ate it like nothing and he hasn't had any more back problems.

Edited September 16, 2017 by mojoween

[Michichick]

My cat is way too skinny. Maybe I should try Temptations.

[peachmangosteen]

My cat is crazy for Tempations. Like it's really bad lol.

[Callaphera]

Same. We started him on Greenies, which he was all right with but one day the husband picked up a bag of Temptations, just to see if he would like them. Kitty crack, man. We keep telling him that acknowledging he has a problem is the first step towards recovery, but when that bag gets shaken, he's on us like a crack addict looking to score a rock. 

Ahem. Speaking of, here's a Duke update for you: Incision is great. Cone of Damn it, Dukey, Stop Licking Your Incision is a fail. It's now two duct taped together and somehow his neck seemed to grow five inches longer so it still isn't good enough, hence 24 hour nursing. He's ready to bust out of his extra large dog crate and Cone (he has a follow up appointment with the surgeon on Wednesday, so hopefully at least the Cone can come off). Those he owns on the other hand are thisclose to losing their shit because of lack of sleep, bad eating habits - c'mon, I eat dinner at 3 am now - and really bad TV. And I think I got hooked on Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

Pray for us. I think we need it. 

[simplyme]

Just wanted to remind people that Tuesday, Sept. 19th is the real International Talk Like a Pirate Day, not to be confused with the contestant with a holiday name on this season of BB.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day wikipedia link

Talk Like a Pirate Day website (by cofounder Ol' Chumbucket)

Special thanks to @Nashville for actually referring to Whitsunday as ITLaPD. It reminded me it was coming up.

[Michichick]

@Callaphera, I'm sorry Duke is being a naughty boy and caused you to watch the Kardashians. :) Nobody deserves that.

My cat is now on an appetite stimulant, which so far works like fucking magic within 15 minutes of me tackling her and squirting it into her mouth. Now if I could just figure out how to convince her to stop peeing on the carpet, we'd be all good. (I am planning to try out some new litter varieties this week. Changing litter worked last time I had an inappropriately eliminating cat.)

[Nashville]

3 hours ago, simplyme said:

Just wanted to remind people that Tuesday, Sept. 19th is the real International Talk Like a Pirate Day, not to be confused with the contestant with a holiday name on this season of BB.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day wikipedia link

Talk Like a Pirate Day website (by cofounder Ol' Chumbucket)

Special thanks to @Nashville for actually referring to Whitsunday as ITLaPD. It reminded me it was coming up.

No problem - I keep it marrrrked on my calendarrrrrrr.  ;>

[Michichick]

@Callaphera, is that Duke in your profile picture? I love him!

[Callaphera]

1 minute ago, Michichick said:

@Callaphera, is that Duke in your profile picture? I love him!

That's my boy! He's a handsome little devil, even with that satellite dish on (the picture was from our visit at the vet hospital). He's happily curling up in all of his favourite sleeping spots to make sure they haven't changed. 

Honestly, I couldn't change that picture of Raven fast enough now that the season is over. The crying one will remain on my background because hilarious. 

[Lady Calypso]

So, I'm watching the third season of Fuller House on Netflix right now. Why? I don't even know; probably out of nostalgia or something, even though I'm not really liking this season (oddly I was fine with the first two). But there's an episode that has the circus music playing at one point...I felt like I had a PTSD flashback to pots and pans. I had to literally stop the episode to shudder and then come here to tell you guys. 

The circus music will forever be tainted by pots, pans, and tutus. Thanks Josh (and Mark)!

[Michichick]

Ugh, my cat took a turn for the worse today and now she is no longer with me. I appreciate those of you who gave me cat advice, and tolerated my off-topic pet talk in the live feed thread. 

[Lady Calypso]

5 minutes ago, Michichick said:

Ugh, my cat took a turn for the worse today and now she is no longer with me. I appreciate those of you who gave me cat advice, and tolerated my off-topic pet talk in the live feed thread. 

Oh man, Michichick. I am so sorry to hear about your cat. No words can describe how much that sucks. 

[Michichick]

1 minute ago, Lady Calypso said:

Oh man, Michichick. I am so sorry to hear about your cat. No words can describe how much that sucks. 

Thanks.  Not gonna lie, I'm a fucking mess right now. I know it was the best decision for her, but it's so hard.

[tiftgirl]

11 hours ago, Michichick said:

Thanks.  Not gonna lie, I'm a fucking mess right now. I know it was the best decision for her, but it's so hard.

I am so very sorry Michichick.  I know your head knows you did right by her but that doesn't help your heart right now.  My kitties and I are sending you virtual hugs and prayers.

There is a great website that helps with everything you experience with pet loss.  I don't know if it's ok to post it here, but I can if someone knows it is ok to do, or pm me and I will be glad to share it with you.  It really helped me when I got stuck in the grief when one of mine passed.

Callaphera I was so glad to read that your handsome  Duke is doing better!

Sorry, I know I just came out of nowhere, but, I lurk on this forum and it's the pets that gets me to come out and post.

[Guest]

47 minutes ago, tiftgirl said:

There is a great website that helps with everything you experience with pet loss.  I don't know if it's ok to post it here, but I can if someone knows it is ok to do, or pm me and I will be glad to share it with you.  It really helped me when I got stuck in the grief when one of mine passed.

It will be fine if you want to post a link.

[tiftgirl]

3 hours ago, CuriousParker said:

It will be fine if you want to post a link.

Thank you CuriousParker!

It is http://aplb.org/  It is Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement.  They have a lot of resources listed, but, the best part is the chats they have 5 nights a week and Sunday afternoons.  The mods are trained for this and they are so very helpful and caring.  Those chats did more to help me heal than everything else I tried combined.

[Callaphera]

15 hours ago, Michichick said:

Ugh, my cat took a turn for the worse today and now she is no longer with me. I appreciate those of you who gave me cat advice, and tolerated my off-topic pet talk in the live feed thread. 

Oh no! I'm so very very sorry for your loss, Michichick. All the love and good mojo for you and yours. 

[CrazyDog]

On 9/22/2017 at 8:03 PM, Michichick said:

Ugh, my cat took a turn for the worse today and now she is no longer with me. I appreciate those of you who gave me cat advice, and tolerated my off-topic pet talk in the live feed thread. 

I just saw this and I'm so sorry! 

[Michichick]

8 minutes ago, CrazyDog said:

I just saw this and I'm so sorry! 

Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

[Nashville]

Test post to see if  P.tv is down; haven’t seen a new post in 18+ hours, which is beyond unusual.

[Nashville]

Out in Albuquerque this week on a work trip, so I haven’t had a chance to see butkus yet.  

Will get caught up as soon as I get back home.

[green]

12 hours ago, Nashville said:

Out in Albuquerque this week on a work trip ...

 

Yeah, sure.  A "work" trip.  See I knew Walter White didn't actually die.  Or is that you, Jesse?  Or is Saul back in town?  How is the food at Chicken Brothers?

[Callaphera]

16 hours ago, Nashville said:

Out in Albuquerque this week on a work trip, so I haven’t had a chance to see butkus yet.  

Will get caught up as soon as I get back home.

Yay! I was missing your take on these brain trusts.

[CrazyDog]

Sorry to continue the cat talk, but hey, it's my life. I'm just now getting into Big Brother, because we lost our 17 yr old kitty boy last week, after a crazy couple of weeks dealing with some sort of unknown neurological issue. Right now, getting into Big Brother is the perfect distraction, so hopefully I can get caught up. I've been reading the feed updates but have missed most of the eps. I do like that there doesn't seem to be anyone really heinous in the cast...so far.

Edited July 9, 2018 by CrazyDog

[Nashville]

So - I’m in my home office working, and my other half is in the next room watching “Ghost Whisperer” or some such.

Some ghost starts talking in some kind of low, booming, backtracked ghost-speak kind of shit, and I know it’s supposed to be all ominous and scary and whatever - but suddenly out of the (to me) mumbled rumbling background noise coming out of the next room, I suddenly seem to hear Mr. Scary Ghost Dude say “pendejo”, clear as a bell.

Which is one of the reasons I know I’m decadent; when I hear ghosts, I hear them swearing in Spanish.

We now return you back to your regularly scheduled program....

[CrazyDog]

Given some of the cursing some of us have been doing towards Sam's insect and arachnid zoo in the house, I feel I can share here. While catching up on a Fear the Dead episode tonight, I saw what I initially thought (for some reason) was a tuft of cat fur cruising along our dark living room carpet, like a lone tumbleweed.

NOPE.

It was the biggest spider we've seen in our house in 9 years, according to Mr. CrazyDog. As someone with a decent case of arachnophobia, this is Not Cool. We're in WA state, and are thinking maybe just a big house spider. 

Thankfully I can sit here and watch feeds until I can actually put my feet back on the ground, hopefully in the next week or two.

GAH.

[Nashville]

@CrazyDog - Is it still cruising the local furniture, or has it been relocated to ArachnoHeaven?

[CrazyDog]

Though we feel remorse, it's passed on to a higher plane. I'm just left wondering about its 30 or 40 siblings that must still be around.

In all seriousness, I know they are generally harmless and good to have around. But still. We could have put a collar with a nametag on this thing.

[Nashville]

2 hours ago, CrazyDog said:

We could have put a collar with a nametag on this thing.

That image had me cackling.  “Here Spot!  Come here, boy!  Now who’s a good spider...?”  :D

[mikewho]

. Thanks. Moved it.

Edited August 24, 2018 by mikewho
Better suited somewhere else.

[peachmangosteen]

Your post would probably be better suited in the Past Seasons Chit Chat thread.

Edited August 24, 2018 by peachmangosteen

[Lady Calypso]

As per the discussion about the pronunciation of some words from the Live Feeds thread, it's always fascinating to hear how different regions pronounce different things. As a Canadian, I didn't think I said things that differently, but perhaps I do. Almonds, for example, is prounounced like ah-mund to me. I thought I used the L, but I think I go back and forth, for the most part.

I also pronounce pecans like pee-kans. I also wonder, though, how much of my pronounciation is taken from television and movies.

[IndyMischa]

I'm an Indiana girl who says puh-KAHN, but my childhood was all over the place: Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, and Texas by the time I graduated. I am FIRMLY pro "tennis shoe" and anti "sneaker," but can deal with "soda" if "pop" is sold out. Not sure where I exactly fall on the "almond" scale - I say the "l" but not fully, if that makes any sense? 

[Nashville]

Middle Tennessee:

• Almond = ALL-mund
• Pecan = puh-KAHN
• It’s catty-corner, not kitty-corner
• The thing you push in a grocery store is a cart, not a buggy.
• All carbonated nonalcoholic beverages are Coke; my favorite brand of Coke, for example, is Dr. Pepper.  ;)

[Lsk02]

Missouri, but pronunciations and dialects vary greatly depending on what part of the state you’re in. That Mason-Dixon Line, y’all.

 

For me:

AHL-mund

puh-KAHN

catty corner 

Soda

 

One question I’ve always had, is pic-ture vs pitcher a regional thing, or just a mispronunciation?  I never want to say anything to people who say “pitcher.” 

[Nashville]

A good friend of mine who started out on Long Island and (eventually) landed in Nashville has a total pet peeve over how Nashvillians pronounce the name of one of our moderately major local streets - Lafayette Street.  

He insists on perpetually correcting locals by saying, “you’re all saying it wrong - in France it’s a proper name, pronounced Lah-fee-ETTE!”

To which I invariably reply, “Well, that may be true of a proper name in France - but in Nashville it’s a street, and it’s pronounced Luh-FAY-ette.”

Drives him up the fucking wall, so I bring it up every chance I get just to watch him shriek.  Yeah, I’m a good friend.  ;>

Edited August 27, 2018 by Nashville
Tweaked pronunciation for accuracy

[CrazyDog]

Western WA state here - there's a big difference between the east and west sides of the state :) Also shamelessly copying and pasting some from Nashville, since they were already typed out!

• Almond = ALL-mund (l had no idea people actually said AH-Mund.)
• Pecan = puh-KAHN and Pee-KAHN - I don't know, I'll say both.
• Kitty-corner
• Sneakers (though I think when I lived in MD, it was tennis shoes)
• All carbonated beverages are soda
• Local annoyance - some people here (it might be an Eastern WA thing) say WARSHington. Drives. Me. Crazy.

[tiftgirl]

I love this kind of stuff.

Georgia by way of south Louisiana until I was 13.

Pah-Kahn - mostly because my dog's name (Pecan) was pronounced Pee-Can.  Because, well, he really could.

Coke is a generic term.  Otherwise when you say you want a coke why do other people ask what flavor?

The Georgia pronunciation of Lafayette astounded me, much like @Nashville's friend.

Preparing to do something, or getting ready to leave this house is also known as Fixin to.

There is a town in south Georgia name Cairo.  Yep, it's Kay-Row, like the syrup.

And, @Nashville I saw your comment about the Georgia education system in the other thread and to you sir I say Hey! (in a Stop that! tone) I mean, you are right and all, I just felt the obligation to react indignantly even though there is no way I could even pretend to argue and keep a straight face  (see Cairo above).

[Skycatcher]

Pecan pie = aa-pul for me.    The only time I eat pecans is when they're crushed up in cookies or something like that.

 My family is from Boston and Belfast.  I still have "awnts" and spray ants. My mom used to "i'on her sho'ts in the summah."  And when she talked to her brother in Maine, she picked up that "ahyuhp" accent and it would be 3 days before we could understand her again.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Skycatcher

[Wings]

4 hours ago, Nashville said:

A good friend of mine who started out on Long Island and (eventually) landed in Nashville has a total pet peeve over how Nashvillians pronounce the name of one of our moderately major local streets - Lafayette Street.  

He insists on perpetually correcting locals by saying, “you’re all saying it wrong - in France it’s a proper name, pronounced Lah-fee-ETTE!”

To which I invariably reply, “Well, that may be true of a proper name in France - but in Nashville it’s a street, and it’s pronounced Luh-FAY-ette.”

Drives him up the fucking wall, so I bring it up every chance I get just to watch him shriek.  Yeah, I’m a good friend.  ;>

 

LOL  love this.  MA is filled with crazy pronunciations. 

Worchester = Wuss-ter or Wiss-ter

Wobern= Wha-bin

Leicester= Lester

Gloucester= Glosster

It drives visitors nuts. 

Edited August 27, 2018 by Wings

[Nashville]

(Moved from the Live Feed thread)

1 hour ago, Neveragain said:

I’m in Jersey, too, from nyc originally. But we say PEE-can.  Agree on leaf peepers. But I have never heard of people going down south to see the leaves!  In fact my friends own a place in Vermont that they rent out for the leaf peepers because everyone goes to New England to see the leaves

Oh yeah.  Starting from late August and going on through early/mid October-ish, out in the rural areas we’ll get hordes of Northerners every weekend - first the fruit-pickers, then the leaf-lookers - and my god, are they ever tourists.  

I remember once in early September I’d been helping my grandfather hang tobacco for drying.  The process involves hanging the cut tobacco plant stalks with the leaves from multiple levels of rafters in a barn (my job) while getting smoldering fires going in rows of sawdust laid out on the barn’s dirt floor (our job).  The smoke and heat dries out the leaves and gets them ready for market - and while fire is involved, it’s totally safe.  So long as your barn floor is “clean” dirt and you don’t rake or pile up sawdust anywhere near anything else wood like the rafter supports, you can leave it unattended for a day or so at a time to do its work.  Smoky as hell, though.

My grandfather and I had just finished checking one of his drying barns and were headed back to the truck to go to the next - when all of a sudden a Volvo comes tearing it up the road, brake-slides to a stop, the driver bounces out like a rubber ball carrying a fire extinguisher, and he sprints for the barn.  My grandfather shouted “STOP HIM!!!” - and I had to lay him out with the best damn not-entirely-legal open-field tackle you ever saw, before the dumb sonofabitch ruined a substantial portion of my grandfather’s tobacco crop for the year.

Afterwards we found out they were a couple from (I think) Massachusetts who were driving back from picking apples at one of the local orchards when they saw the smoke coming out of the barn and thought it was on fire.  We all had a good chuckle about it, then dude limped back to his car and they went on their way.

So, yeah - tourists.  ;)

[Skycatcher]

12 minutes ago, Wings said:

LOL  love this.  MA is filled with crazy pronunciations. 

Worchester = Wuss-ter or Wiss-ter

Wobern= Wha-bin

Leicester= Lester

Gloucester= Glosster

It drives visitors nuts. 

 I was born in  Worcester and finally gave up correcting people. "Yes, that's right. Wor-chester, in Mass-a-choo-see-ets."

[IndyMischa]

@Nashville, that is hilarious. Bless their hearts - they meant well!

And in Massachusetts-ers' defense, isn't all that cester - - - > ster stuff straight from Britglish? 

[Wings]

@Nashville.  I love that story but even more hearing about the business and that you helped with that when young.  Very different childhood story than I have ever heard.  

MA is loaded with apple orchards so I wonder why on earth were they picking apples to bring home.  There are countless pick your own places in central MA a quick drive from the Boston area.  

2 minutes ago, IndyMischa said:

@Nashville, that is hilarious. Bless their hearts - they meant well!

And in Massachusetts-ers' defense, isn't all that cester - - - > ster stuff straight from Britglish? 

Yes but we have bastardized their pronounciation too!