Small Talk: We'll Be Right Back

[Brattinella]

Supermarket litter boxes are only good for ONE cat, and only if it is a small one, preferably a kitten.  One of my cats is very long, so I bought a Rubbermaid clear container that is about 24 inches long and 18 inches wide.  He never hangs his butt over the side, unless the other one has made a tornado in the other end of the box and he is trying to avoid it.  (It gets cleaned twice a day).

[peacheslatour]

16 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

Stella's a litter-flinger, a very exuberant kitty when it comes to burying. She'd tear holes in a liner, too. Bosco would try to grab the sides of the liner to cover the litter. He loves to cover stuff.

My little Tortie AKA Queen of the World doesn't bother to cover hers, so the big old grey tom does it for her. He also washes her ears.

[theatremouse]

I'm glad your cats make y'all happy, but I'm wheezing just reading all this.

[Prevailing Wind]

Stella's a tortie, too. She washes the top of Bosco's head. The first time I brought him home, he was 3 months old, she was 9 months. I wasn't too sure how they'd get along. First thing she did was throw him to the floor and wash his ears.  They've been bonded ever since.

[ennui]

On 10/12/2016 at 3:27 PM, aquarian1 said:

I recently heard that concrete mixing tubs are good for litter boxes - nothing sticks.  I was going to test it out, but haven't yet.  Very soon though.

I knew of a woman who had lots of cats (not quite a cat hoarder, but close). She had extra bathrooms, so she filled one bathtub with kitty litter. This worked fine for her, but my friend who adopted one of the cats couldn't figure out why the cat was always pooping in their shower.

[Silver Raven]

I just saw a news story about a cat that survived the recent floods because it was found floating in its litter box.  :)

[Eliot]

On 10/6/2016 at 4:54 AM, riley702 said:

Regarding Pinktober, I hate it. Doesn't mean everyone else has to agree, but I think it unfairly trivializes and sexualizes an ugly disease that kills 40,000 American women AND men every year. Breast cancer isn't a pretty pink flash-your-tatas, everybody's cured party. Many women are living with metastatic disease and 20-30% of early-stage cancers will come back as metastatic disease 5, 10 or even 15 years in the future. And for those people, life is an unending grind of active treatment until nothing works anymore. And then they die. There actually isn't reliable data that mammograms save lives, due to that uncertainty of later progression hanging over all of us who hope we've beaten this disease. FWIW, I found my lump and it topped out the aggressiveness scale (grade). It's been 6 years and the longer I go without relapsing, the better, obviously, but it changes you and not for the better, having this hanging over your head. Breast cancer isn't one of those 5 years and you're "cured" cancers. In fact, the first thing they said to me was "We don't like to use the word "cure" with breast cancer." And I cussed long and loud, because I'd bought into this being a good, "everybody lives!" disease.

Also, the pinkwashing in October is, to my cynical eyes, a marketing gimmick and nothing more. How much is going to breast cancer? And to whom? How will the money be spent? Is there any oversight? How much is overhead and marketing? Komen spends millions paying fundraisers to raise even more money and suing other cancer fundraisers for using the words "race for the cure" or anything they deem too close to their trademarked and profitable slogan. They demand anyone wanting to "race for the cure" must raise at least $2,000.  I guess those smaller amounts aren't worth their while. They've also teamed up with some questionable companies (Pink buckets of KFC, anyone?) How much money is going toward research to actually cure this disease? Fuck awareness. Everyone not living under a rock is aware of breast cancer. 

Whew, sorry. Stepping off my soap box now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leisha-davisonyasol/october-pinkwashing_b_4102424.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/columnists/ct-breast-cancer-brotman-talk-20141006-column.html

Well stated, and I, too, wish you well in your recovery.

Not to add fuel to the fire, but what a lot of people don't know is that many of the organizations who pinkwash their stuff during October CAP their contributions to Komen or wherever. So you might be buying that pink-lidded Yoplait thinking part of your purchase is going to breast cancer research, but if Yoplait has already hit their ceiling they keep all your $$.

[janie jones]

I don't remember which thread we were talking about it in, but I thought everyone should know that the pumpkin spice Mini Wheats don't taste that spiced.

[Prevailing Wind]

Thanks for taking the bullet for us, janie jones.

[janie jones]

Heh.  I was the one who was looking forward to them!

[ennui]

Speaking of pumpkin spice ... there is a car forum that I frequent, and one of the detail supply companies has put together a pumpkin spice gift box. Pumpkin Spice Detail Spray*, pumpkin orange microfiber cloth, vanilla scent stick, a few additional items ... 

When did pumpkin spice explode?

ETA If you've never detailed a car, a lot of those sprays smell amazing. Just fyi.

Edited October 23, 2016 by ennui

[theatremouse]

1 hour ago, ennui said:

When did pumpkin spice explode?

Started really exploding three years ago. Shows no sign of stopping. It's like a virus that will spread until it kills half of us, then it'll reduce down to negligible levels...but not yet.

[ennui]

I could go for some pumpkin pie right about now.

[Brattinella]

Me, too!  With some real whipped cream!  Mmmm.

[riley702]

On 10/21/2016 at 9:07 PM, janie jones said:

I don't remember which thread we were talking about it in, but I thought everyone should know that the pumpkin spice Mini Wheats don't taste that spiced.

Well, phooey. I thought it sounded good, too.

[Prevailing Wind]

Pumpkin pie gives me heartburn BAD...but my cats eat a TBS of canned pumpkin every day to help with hairballs, etc.

[frenchtoast]

Quote

Our butter is kept in a covered dish on the dining room table.  It also holds a quarter pound, and it does not spoil or melt. 

My mom did (and still does) keep her butter on the counter. I keep a cold house in winter, so it's stays pretty hard in winter. (Makes softening butter for Christmas cookies frustrating.) My grandmother used margarine for table stuff (like in cooked veggies), never baking though. I find uses for both. I like margarine for spreading on bread etc. But when cooking or baking, butter only. Depending on what's handy I'll use either butter or margarine when frying an egg. If I'm really emulating my grandma, I'll fry up some bacon and then cook the eggs in the bacon grease. But, I prefer baking my bacon now because it's so much cleaner and easier.

So, in short, I use both butter and margarine.

[Brattinella]

Grandma-fried eggs in bacon grease!  Mmmm.

[Bastet]

I never make eggs (egg whites in my case, as I hate yolk) that aren't accompanied by either bacon or sausage, so I always fry or scramble them in the grease; I pour most of it off, and leave just enough to keep the eggs from sticking.  When I get egg whites that have been cooked in butter, they taste so strange to me (even though I like butter).

My house is a margarine-free zone.

[Silver Raven]

4 hours ago, Brattinella said:

Grandma-fried eggs in bacon grease!  Mmmm.

Bacon grease is the best condiment there is.  My mother's delicious mashed potato salad used bacon drippings.

[backformore]

6 hours ago, Brattinella said:

Grandma-fried eggs in bacon grease!  Mmmm.

My grandma saved bacon grease.  She spread it on bread, used it to cook with, and added a spoonful to vegetables before serving.   Is it healthy?  I don't know, but grandma lived to be 103.

[peacheslatour]

Quote

My mom did (and still does) keep her butter on the counter.

Same here. It's amazing how well it keeps that way and it's always soft enough to spread on bread or use when baking. My DH used to use I Can't Believe...but he said now that he's used to having butter in the house, he can't stand the fake stuff.

[mmecorday]

Every summer I go to an ice cream supper and other things are served like roasted corn on the cob. I know that they will only have Parkay in a squeeze bottle so I always bring a stick of butter with me for my corn. You gotta have real butter with corn on the cob. Or at least I gotta.

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, mmecorday said:

Every summer I go to an ice cream supper and other things are served like roasted corn on the cob. I know that they will only have Parkay in a squeeze bottle so I always bring a stick of butter with me for my corn. You gotta have real butter with corn on the cob. Or at least I gotta.

Smart. That squeeze margarine is an abomination before the lord.

[Brattinella]

There was ONE recipe in my grandma's cookbook, a cookie recipe, that specified PARKAY.  So, that was how we made them (delicious, btw).  But nothing else, I swear!

[mmecorday]

I love to go through my mother's old cookbooks. Most of them are from women's clubs and date back to the sixties and seventies so a lot of the recipes call for oleo instead of butter.

Some of those recipes had to be written on a dare. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to combine Jell-O, mayonnaise and fresh horseradish to make a salad?

[riley702]

Blech!

[Moose135]

55 minutes ago, mmecorday said:

Some of those recipes had to be written on a dare. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to combine Jell-O, mayonnaise and fresh horseradish to make a salad?

Well, if it goes back to the 60s, they were probably doing a lot of acid, and it sounded good to them. ;-)

[AuntiePam]

I remember when margarine was white, and it came with a little packet of orange food coloring.  Nobody was fooled.

Back in the 60's we were poor enough for awhile to qualify for food assistance.  You had a choice of food stamps (real stamps, they came in a little book) or commodities -- flour, peanut butter, cheese, oatmeal, and real butter.  We always chose the commodities. 

[Prevailing Wind]

20 hours ago, mmecorday said:

Some of those recipes had to be written on a dare. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to combine Jell-O, mayonnaise and fresh horseradish to make a salad?

I just saw a thing in a Martha Stewart magazine (at the doc's office) - it was an ad for Archer Farms - Pistachio Gelato with olive oil and sea salt. Really?

1 minute ago, AuntiePam said:

I remember when margarine was white, and it came with a little packet of orange food coloring.  Nobody was fooled.

Back in the 60's we were poor enough for awhile to qualify for food assistance.  You had a choice of food stamps (real stamps, they came in a little book) or commodities -- flour, peanut butter, cheese, oatmeal, and real butter.  We always chose the commodities. 

I used to work with a Cuban girl who's grandma got the commodities. Cubans, in general, did NOT understand the American fixation with peanut butter. Esperanza gave me a can of her grandma's peanut butter. OMG. I never had such good peanut butter!

[AuntiePam]

6 minutes ago, Prevailing Wind said:

I used to work with a Cuban girl who's grandma got the commodities. Cubans, in general, did NOT understand the American fixation with peanut butter. Esperanza gave me a can of her grandma's peanut butter. OMG. I never had such good peanut butter!

Yep -- all natural, way better than Skippy.  Jif Natural is almost as good, but not quite. 

[ennui]

On 10/25/2016 at 1:03 PM, mmecorday said:

Some of those recipes had to be written on a dare. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to combine Jell-O, mayonnaise and fresh horseradish to make a salad?

I had to look this up. You forgot the pineapple, cottage cheese and walnuts. Apparently, people quite like it, but it can be a challenge to get them to taste it if they know the ingredients beforehand. Also, some recipes substitute Miracle Whip (gag), or evaporated milk. 

[mmecorday]

Quote

Also, some recipes substitute Miracle Whip (gag), or evaporated milk. 

My girlfriend and I were shopping at Ollie's, kind of a low-rent Big Lots that occasionally has great deals on household items. We were running low on mayonnaise at home and somehow we knew this without having a refrigerator that lets us see its contents while we're shopping. She saw a bin full of discounted Miracle Whip and said, "This is pretty much the same thing as mayonnaise, right?" "Um, no. Not even close." Can't do fake butter and can't do Miracle Whip.

[Moose135]

40 minutes ago, mmecorday said:

My girlfriend and I were shopping at Ollie's, kind of a low-rent Big Lots that occasionally has great deals on household items.

I love Ollies!  Used to go to them all the time when I went out to my Mother-in-law's place in NE PA.  I moved down here to Charlotte, and discovered they have stores here too, one about 5 miles from me.  Good Stuff Cheap!

[riley702]

On 10/25/2016 at 10:57 AM, proserpina65 said:

No - there are good pies, and then there's coconut custard.  My mother loves coconut custard pie and is under the delusion that I like it too despite my many, many efforts to dissuade her. 

Hmm, is that a different thing from coconut cream pie? Because I flove that. I even have a Martha recipe (don't judge) that uses cream of coconut, a whole bag of the sweetened shredded coconut and Swiss meringue (that doesn't pull away from the crust or "weep". And tastes kinda marshmallowey). Damn. It's been too long since I made that...

Swiss meringue is where you put the sugar in the egg whites first and gradually heat it up in a double boiler until the sugar dissolves without the egg whites cooking. Then you pour it into your stand mixer and beat the hell out of it.

Edited October 27, 2016 by riley702

[proserpina65]

9 hours ago, riley702 said:

Hmm, is that a different thing from coconut cream pie? Because I flove that. I even have a Martha recipe (don't judge) that uses cream of coconut, a whole bag of the sweetened shredded coconut and Swiss meringue (that doesn't pull away from the crust or "weep". And tastes kinda marshmallowey). Damn. It's been too long since I made that...

Swiss meringue is where you put the sugar in the egg whites first and gradually heat it up in a double boiler until the sugar dissolves without the egg whites cooking. Then you pour it into your stand mixer and beat the hell out of it.

According to my mother, yes.  I don't generally like coconut, so it doesn't matter to me either way.

[proserpina65]

21 hours ago, AuntiePam said:

I remember when margarine was white, and it came with a little packet of orange food coloring.  Nobody was fooled.

Back in the 60's we were poor enough for awhile to qualify for food assistance.  You had a choice of food stamps (real stamps, they came in a little book) or commodities -- flour, peanut butter, cheese, oatmeal, and real butter.  We always chose the commodities. 

My dad was unemployed for a while in the mid-eighties and my parents qualified for food assistance.  I have come to loathe government cheese.

[mmecorday]

Quote

Better raccoons than possums. Gawd, those are just prehistoric rats. Opened the front door one time to find one on my porch. Damn thing just stood there hissing at me. Oh, I don't fucking think so! Hissing at me on my own porch... I bounced a BB off its head at 5 paces. It shook its head and then slowly ambled off, unscathed. *shudder*

I am so afraid of possums and I really have no reason to. They are absolutely harmless to humans unless they are rabid. Their hissing is their only way on protecting themselves -- they give the appearance of being very fierce when they're actually very docile and just want to be left alone. But yes, they do look exactly like the ROUSes in "The Princess Bride."

[cynicat]

47 minutes ago, mmecorday said:

I am so afraid of possums and I really have no reason to. They are absolutely harmless to humans unless they are rabid. Their hissing is their only way on protecting themselves -- they give the appearance of being very fierce when they're actually very docile and just want to be left alone. But yes, they do look exactly like the ROUSes in "The Princess Bride."

Possums unfortunately have a disadvantage against cars in that when a car comes at them, they  'play possum'.  Laying down in the road in front of a speeding automobile is apparently not a great strategy. 

[Brattinella]

A million years ago, when I lived in the mountains, I used to put out bowls of dog food on the deck.  Every night, the troops would arrive, and I was able to view them/photograph them.  Entire families of raccoons, lots of possums, and skunk families as well.  Eventually they came to a truce, and would eat together in relatively perfect harmony.  Quite a sight to behold, from about 1 foot away through the glass. *sigh*

[peacheslatour]

2 hours ago, mmecorday said:

I am so afraid of possums and I really have no reason to. They are absolutely harmless to humans unless they are rabid. Their hissing is their only way on protecting themselves -- they give the appearance of being very fierce when they're actually very docile and just want to be left alone. But yes, they do look exactly like the ROUSes in "The Princess Bride."

Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist.

[theatremouse]

1 hour ago, cynicat said:

Possums unfortunately have a disadvantage against cars in that when a car comes at them, they  'play possum'.  Laying down in the road in front of a speeding automobile is apparently not a great strategy. 

I suppose it might help if they were dead-center in the road and the wheelbase managed to go around them (and the rest of the vehicle over them)....whereas continuing to run you might get hit by either tires or grill depending on height.

Pun not intended.

Edited October 27, 2016 by theatremouse

[OSM Mom]

In regards to the margarine / butter conversation,  my in laws were margarine people.  My MIL thought it was healthier than butter.  Stuff was nasty .  When they would come to eat at our house, they would bring margarine because they wouldn't eat butter.  

And I grew up leaving butter out in a butter dish.  Never goes bad or anything.  

And you couldn't pay me to buy mayonnaise .  It tastes flat and nasty to me.  Give me my Miracle whip.  

[ennui]

5 hours ago, cynicat said:

Possums unfortunately have a disadvantage against cars in that when a car comes at them, they  'play possum'.  Laying down in the road in front of a speeding automobile is apparently not a great strategy. 

Laying down in the road is better than standing and facing the car, like cats. Dogs usually get hit in the flank because they are running across. Cats tend to stop and stare. 

[OSM Mom]

10 minutes ago, ennui said:

Laying down in the road is better than standing and facing the car, like cats. Dogs usually get hit in the flank because they are running across. Cats tend to stop and stare. 

Armadillos method of defense on the road is to roll up in a ball and jump up to bumper height.   

[Prevailing Wind]

And, of course, squirrels prefer the zig-zag approach.

 

Re: Mayo.  I was going to repeat something one of my high school English teachers said about mayonnaise, but I realized I hated him for saying that and I don't want y'all to suffer the same way I did, so I won't repeat it.

[bilgistic]

And now we want to know what he said.

There are Canadian geese (I don't care if that's not what they are; that's what we've always called them) that frequent a pond adjacent my apartment complex. After the 20 or so of them get tired of swimming, the geese go walking through the complex about five abreast in the morning when I'm leaving for work. I've had to wait several times for them to verrrrrry slllllllloooooowly cross the road in front of me so I can get on my way. I really don't like their attitudes.

"Sorry I was late to work today; I had to wait for geese to cross the street."

Edited October 28, 2016 by bilgistic

[Silver Raven]

6 hours ago, ennui said:

Laying down in the road is better than standing and facing the car, like cats. Dogs usually get hit in the flank because they are running across. Cats tend to stop and stare. 

I ran right over the top of one one night, and it made the mistake of rising up just as I passed overhead, I could hear it and feel the possum's head hit the underside of my car.  I still get shivers.

2 hours ago, bilgistic said:

And now we want to know what he said.

There are Canadian geese (I don't care if that's not what they are; that's what we've always called them) that frequent a pond adjacent my apartment complex. After the 20 or so of them get tired of swimming, the geese go walking through the complex about five abreast in the morning when I'm leaving for work. I've had to wait several times for them to verrrrrry slllllllloooooowly cross the road in front of me so I can get on my way. I really don't like their attitudes.

"Sorry I was late to work today; I had to wait for geese to cross the street."

We have turkeys.  Flocks of ten to fifteen of them.  Sloooooowly strolling across the road.

[LoneHaranguer]

On 10/27/2016 at 1:18 PM, cynicat said:

Possums unfortunately have a disadvantage against cars in that when a car comes at them, they  'play possum'.  Laying down in the road in front of a speeding automobile is apparently not a great strategy.

What they do is akin to pissing themselves and fainting out of fear, except that it involves glands that emit a bad odor. It works against predators that don't trust food that's already dead. Other animals that just stop, are hoping not to be noticed, which is actually counterproductive against a car whose driver may not be paying that much attention.

[mmecorday]

Quote

Armadillos method of defense on the road is to roll up in a ball and jump up to bumper height.   

I visited Springfield, Mo., several years ago and I could not get over the number of dead armadillos along the sides of the highways! I had never even seen a living armadillo in the flesh, so this was very upsetting.

This forum should be retitled "Everything from butter to road kill."