Tiny Triumphs

[JD]

And last night we had an hour-long interview with the ArtistFirst Radio Network (which is internet-only, I think) and they played all four songs off our upcoming EP!
http://media.artistfirst.com/ArtistFirs ... 13_86s.mp3

[Tuco]

And last night we had an hour-long interview with the ArtistFirst Radio Network (which is internet-only, I think) and they played all four songs off our upcoming EP!
http://media.artistfirst.com/ArtistFirs ... 13_86s.mp3

That was enjoyable. I liked it when you tried to explain intonation to a keyboard player. Punk as fuck.

Good music.

[Tuco]

They're cute when they're little.

Some friends had a cow up here in Maine who calved fine but took to the woods and wouldn't come out even though the weather was turning. So first we had to go rope and haul this big fucking mama out the trees, then go back and rope and carry the calf overland because the ground was too rocky/snowy for the little fucker to walk on, only being a few days old. I don't know how she got them both down there in the first place. I have images of her carrying this huge calf by its scruff like a kitten.

Carrying a wet, upset calf a quarter mile uphill out of the woods in twilight makes you hope that he goes to college and becomes cow Ghandi. It's hard to kill something you had to struggle to save.

Bos Tarus are really fucking stupid. You don't get this shit with braymers or longhorns.

Got a lepe once after helping one of the neighbors, she was pretty dried up and little and the manager was going to knock her in the head so I took her in lieu of my day wages and raised her. Turned into a good cow. Really gentle. You can still ride up to her and pet her horseback. I wound up giving her to a little kid because I am a sentimental fool and the cute little shit simply asked me if she could have her.

[Dangerman]

Mamas don't let your babies ask cowboys for cows. Because they'll give them one to take home.

[JasonL]

Dispatches from the ranch are a welcome addition to this network.

[Highway]

Got my home phone lines reconnected internally, so we can go back to getting robocalls on our (non-ringing) answering machine. They hadn't been working since I took out the old alarm system.


It's the number of record on a few things, so we don't want to cancel it completely. Plus it's fine to have all those go to an answering machine that we can quickly delete the messages from.

[Jennifer]

Ever since I moved to Atlanta and realized the summertime wardrobe I'd bought in more northerly climates is thoroughly inappropriate for the Deep South, I've been visiting thrift stores and buying lightweight linen and silk garments to replace the humidity-hoarding cotton I had before. Since I was genuinely desperate for anything I could wear outdoors without significantly increasing my risk of sunburn and heatstroke, I ended up buying a few [generally high-quality] garments I never would've bought otherwise, including shirts in colors that utterly clash with my complexion. I also bought some "Rit" clothing-dye, and tonight I FINALLY got around to using some of it. (Actually Jeff did the dyeing work, because I had to deal with a last-minute editing request from a freelance project.) I had "Royal Blue" dye, which I first applied to two garish pink shirts (one each linen and silk). The silk shirt came out a gorgeous (and flattering-to-me) shade of purple, and the linen shirt came out sort of a dark lavender (not great but not bad with my complexion, certainly better than bright garish pink).

Those two pink shirts were all I'd intended to try coloring, but since there was still plenty of dye-water left (and the water was still plenty warm), I then added two linen shirts in shades of pale yet harsh toothpaste-spit green. One of those ended up a very nice shade of light blue, the other one an ugly almost-teal (still better than toothpaste-spit green). Finally I tried a long beige linen skirt, which is now an unfortunate shade of faded-sweatpants gray.

So: three successes, one minuscule improvement and one failure. Regarding the now-teal shirt and gray skirt, I'll try dyeing them again later with the "Navy blue" Rit dye I also bought.

Bonus: I'd figured the white label-tags in the garments would all end up dyed blue too, but no: they're presumably artificial fibers which won't absorb natural-fiber dye, and all remained white. You'd never guess those shirts and skirt were ever any colors besides the ones they are now.

[Jennifer]

Dyed another batch of good-except-wrong-color linen clothes, this time with navy blue dye, and the results were even better than last time. This time I did the dye job myself, except I could not find the yellow rubber icky-housework gloves so I did the dye job with my bare hands. So now, all my cuticles and under the fingernails are dark blue, and the rest of my hands have a very libertarian look ("libertarian" defined here as "one who sticks it to The Man via drinking colloidal-silver beverages until the skin turns a smurfy bluish-gray tone").

Note to self: buy more natural-fiber dye. Also new dishwashing gloves.

[Kolohe]

Caught 25.4 lbs of wild salmon, had it frozen and shipped back to my home.

(The effective all-in per pound cost was...not economical. Not *completely* ridiculous, but even Whole Foods would have a better price).

[Tuco]

Caught 25.4 lbs of wild salmon, had it frozen and shipped back to my home.

(The effective all-in per pound cost was...not economical. Not *completely* ridiculous, but even Whole Foods would have a better price).

Damn, that sounds good.

[Warren]

Caught 25.4 lbs of wild salmon, had it frozen and shipped back to my home.

(The effective all-in per pound cost was...not economical. Not *completely* ridiculous, but even Whole Foods would have a better price).

What did you value your own labor at?

[Kwix]

Caught 25.4 lbs of wild salmon, had it frozen and shipped back to my home.

(The effective all-in per pound cost was...not economical. Not *completely* ridiculous, but even Whole Foods would have a better price).

Sockeyes or silvers? I find it endearing that hotels here tout "walk in freezer" as an amenity (oddly this one only on the TV commercials not their website).

[Kolohe]

One sockeye, the rest (about 12) pinks.

Re:Warren, a day in a fjord in clear calm water is not work. (Though the transit from Homer spit across Kachemak Bay was pretty rough that day)

[Warren]

...a day in a fjord in clear calm water is not work.

Granted

Though the transit from Homer spit across Kachemak Bay was pretty rough that day

My point. Plus, those fish didn't freeze, pack, and arrange transport themselves.

[Aresen]

I am a lousy fisherman, but the taste of a salmon fillet grilled over an open fire just hours after it was swimming in the ocean is one of the joys of life.

[Kolohe]

Plus, those fish didn't freeze, pack, and arrange transport themselves.

Well, it only took about 10 minutes of my time to arrange that. The rest was done by summer workers on the Kenai pennisula and the extended corporate empire of Fred Smith.

[dead_elvis]

Hiked Mount Jefferson in the New Hampshire Presidentials yesterday. JFC that kicked my ass hard. So... much... boulder climbing... Much tougher than I was led to believe ("the trailhead starts from a high elevation so the car does most of the climbing" and "sure it's steep but It's only 2.5 miles"). Trail seemed designed by a sadist, forced you to go up and down over every outcropping and false summit instead of going around with an option to go up; and no switchbacks. Great views though. Tiny triumph because I have been having some hip pain and wasn't sure if I'd be able to do any hiking at all.

My second 4,000 footer, only 46 more to go.

[lunchstealer]

Hiked Mount Jefferson in the New Hampshire Presidentials yesterday. JFC that kicked my ass hard. So... much... boulder climbing... Much tougher than I was led to believe ("the trailhead starts from a high elevation so the car does most of the climbing" and "sure it's steep but It's only 2.5 miles"). Trail seemed designed by a sadist, forced you to go up and down over every outcropping and false summit instead of going around with an option to go up; and no switchbacks. Great views though. Tiny triumph because I have been having some hip pain and wasn't sure if I'd be able to do any hiking at all.

My second 4,000 footer, only 46 more to go.

You guys measure accomplishments differently than in Colorado

(Although yes I realize that gets you above treeline at that latitude/geography)

[dead_elvis]

You guys measure accomplishments differently than in Colorado

Oh definitely, and I'm heavily modulating for the shape I'm in, as I haven't done this kind of thing in a couple of years. I previously spent summers hiking cascades in southern and central Oregon (Thielsen, McLoughlin, Bailey, Bend area etc.) so when I heard about the 4000 ft club I was deeply unimpressed. Until I actually started hiking some. I've been finding the trails here to be a bit rougher. Would love to try Colorado someday, I hope my body hasn't passed some point of no return that would keep me from getting back to more epic hikes.

[lunchstealer]

Washington at least is considered to be fairly epic by any non-mountaineering-hike standards.

Then again, the closest I've come to bagging a 14er is summiting Mount Evans (14,265') from the parking lot at the end of the Mount Evans Scenic Byway (14,130'). And I'd put my out-of-shapeness up against yours any day. Hips are fine but my right knee has been a bit unsteady for the past six months or so, and I'm carrying an awful lot of extra me these days.

[Jennifer]

I'm still actively seeking out linen clothes to wear in extremely hot and humid Atlanta summers -- as of right now, I have a decent-sized supply of basic "long linen pants," but still a severe shortage of "long linen pants that actually look good on me." But while perusing Goodwill today I found an absolutely awesome pair -- the first linen pants that I probably would've bought even if I were not actively seeking linen in lieu of cotton -- nice looking, fits me perfectly, and the original owner never even wore them: still has the original retail sales tag, and attached tiny plastic bag containing extra buttons. The retail price was $78.99.

I paid three bucks.

[Highway]

I replaced the slings on our deck furniture. The old ones were 15 years old and rotting away, and I was looking at replacing the chairs, but then found that there are people who will sew replacement slings to measure. The overall process took about a month, but installation only took a few hours, including removal of the old slings and washing the chair frames (since the fabric wasn't in the way). So now they look all nice and new, and all for a lower cost than a single new swivel sling armchair would be.

[JD]

I found a TV/monitor on the street that someone was throwing away, with a sign on it saying "working great!" I took it home and plugged it into my Mac, and sure enough, it does work just fine. It's about 2x the area of my old monitor, so it's quite a change. The only downside is that it doesn't quite fit nicely into my desk/shelving unit. Also, it seems to have pretty poor response time, but I don't really do any twitch gaming anyway.

[Aresen]

I succeeded in turning a bunch of left-over roast beef into stew this afternoon.

Now I have 33 future meals cooling down in the fridge for future use.

[Jennifer]

Made a gyro for dinner, using the last piece of naan, the last of the gyro meat* and the last of the Halal Guys-knockoff gyro sauce. Couldn't have worked out more perfectly if I'd tried.

*Okay, usually I use three pieces of meat per gyro, whereas this time I used four so as not to have a lone piece left over.