K, this is old news, but I'm going through some Antarctica photos for entering a contest and ended up on the Polar Plunge post in our blog. More than a year later, WHAT WAS I THINKING!! Glad I did it though. *shiver* Antarctic Fox - Day 5: Polar Plunge - http://antarctic.fury.com/19-pola...
Thanks, we do intend to finish it. We just haven't quite found time where both of us can. But we will!!
- Rachel Lea Fox
Is the contest with JPG Magazine? Is there someplace we should be voting?
- Anne Bouey
No, I'm still waiting to hear on JPG, they take a while apparently. This is a National Geographic/PDN magazines contest. I think there will be voting for the people's choice part, but then there is a juried part too. I have to get all of mine up and then I will post here for voting. I keep getting distracted this week or their site goes down and I still have 3 more photos to put up. More to come!! Thanks Anne!!!!! :)
- Rachel Lea Fox
SO FREAKIN AMAZING! Taking a cruise through the antarctic is one of my dream vacations. I have some NatGeo travel magazines that I flip through occasionally and sigh a little sigh. I don't know if I can justify the $10k cost though.
- veo
We're going through your old Antarctica photos. My kids are astounded that you jumped in with your swimsuit. They want to know how cold it was.
- Anika
Anika, I have never ever felt something as cold as that water. It was 27degress F which is subfreezing water. It was exhilarating and very scary. I'm very glad I did it, I will NEVER do it again! There was a moment coming up the ladder where my one leg stopped working. I mean I literally had no control or ability to move that leg. It only happened for a split second and then it started...
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- Rachel Lea Fox
I don't even know if I could even explain to them 27F. I've tried, but they've never really experienced something so cold. If they have more questions, I'll let you know.
- Anika
Anika, Kevin says that it is colder than an ice cube which freezes at 32F. Not sure if that helps explain it or not. And AJ, you should, the whole trip was amazing, but this jump really was incredible. Anyone of good health should try it once. I do think one of the reasons I had the problem with my leg is that I already have a compromised neurological system. But even so, it was only an instant and I'm really glad I did it.
- Rachel Lea Fox
*shivers* 32F is 0C. I think I can do it. I read that it will shock your system and start to shut it down.
- AJ Batac :)
In 5 minutes you'll succumb to hypothermia.
- AJ Batac :)
Yup, the time period to get us out of the water if something went wrong was about 2 minutes because the shot would make our systems shut down and we wouldn't be able to help ourselves. My leg freezing up for a second was just one sign what would have been in store for me if I were in there much longer.
- Rachel Lea Fox
Oh, wow. I love Sophie -- Nooooo! Plum, don't destroy the 'nip! *bap bap bap*
- Jennifer Dittrich
Plum has no shame, and Sophie isn't above smacking her around every now and then.
- Katy S
You know, I really wanted to be able to leave the plant on the enclosed porch for them, but I just don't think it will be possible. At least, not unless I want to by a new plant every other day.
- Katy S
We buy ours catnip plants specifically to let them wreak destruction. I am good to my cats, but cruel to the plant kingdom. It's a thing. (And this video is adorable.)
- Marianne
This plant is still pretty young. I'll probably bring it back on the porch once it's recovered and gained some growth. In the meantime, they will get individual leaves portioned out to them from the catnip plant I found growing under one of the hostas.
- Katy S
I just tried giving them a few leaves. They showed no interest in them at all. How much do you want to bet that if I brought the plant back in, the craziness demonstrated in the video would occur?
- Katy S
Just watched this for the first time with the speakers on. I really dislike my voice.
- Katy S
a lot of people dislike hearing their own voice recorded. I can't stand mine
- Sir Shuping is just sir
heh - I don't like hearing mine when it isn't recorded. I try not to think about it most of the time.
- Katy S
Hee hee! Packages and kittehs are such a great combination.
- Katy S
This never works on kittens, when you say to them: "If you don't behave, I am gonna wrap you up with these and send you to a house with lots of lots of big dogs!"
- yjl
Subbing, unsubbing, subbing, unsubbing, subbing, unsubbing, subbing, unsubbing, subbing, unsubbing, subbing, unsubbing isn't likely to make me sub to you. Calm it the hell down.
Nixie got adopted yesterday. I read the info last night and I started crying. It was really hard to give her up after everything we had been through, but keeping her would mean stopping fostering. It was not an easy choice. I dreamt last night that someone I knew adopted her, I was so happy! Sadly I don't know who that person is. #foxfosterkittens
Good luck Nixie!!! I know you will make someone very very happy!!! I'll keep you all posted when Phoebe gets adopted. I don't expect it to take very long.
- Rachel Lea Fox
That's good news, but I understand the sadness.
- Anne Bouey
It's great news. I just kept holding out hope I would know who adopted her so I could get updates and photos and maybe visit some time. I cried more about giving her up than I have about any other kittens. But I know this will happen again with some other kitten and if I keep every kitten that I get overly attached to I will have a real cat house. :)
- Rachel Lea Fox
awwww....I hope Nixie does well and that you do find a way to stay updated on her.
- Bash
That's why I'm always afraid to foster. I'd get too attached and heartbroken. :P
- rowlikeagirl
I'm happy for Nixie and whoever just got such an awesome kitten.
- Katy S
Good luck Nixie! and yes, I understand the sadness. Rachel, were you considering keeping both of them, or just Nixie?
- Tudor Bosman
Rachel, you have my deep sympathies. I fostered 3. When I took the boys to get neutered, I realized there was nooooo way I could let Tiger go to someone who would (probably) try to settle him down (he's the fightiest/bitiest/lovingest cat on the block). I still wonder what happened to Socks, who got adopted by strangers; I'm lucky to know Lilah's owner - I get regular updates. Still,...
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- Marianne
Tudor, yes we pondered keeping just Nixie for a short time. Phoebe is wonderful but with the whole medical roller coaster Nixie was on and fighting for her life and since she didn't feel good all the time she looked to us for comfort, we became more attached to Nixie. We didn't let the thoughts of keeping her stay long though, I can't give up fostering. I looked for a few homes for her,...
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- Rachel Lea Fox
Marianne. We are now on kittens 28 and 29 of nearly 4 years of fostering. You have to set yourself rules and stick to them. Our rule is 2 permanent cat residents here. If we adopt more than that we have to stop fostering. I am fortunate that I know who owns most of my favorites. 6 of our 29 fosters are in places where I get to see them or get photos and updates. We kept the first kitten...
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- Rachel Lea Fox
Rachel, you're a good foster mama. Glad your rules have kept you on the straight and narrow!
- Marianne
I'm sure she's making some family extremely happy and is loved already!! HUGS!
- Lyndsey McGrath
I'm sure she is. I just miss her. Also I don't like that Phoebe hasn't been adopted yet. I thought she would get adopted Sunday night. Hopefully this week.
- Rachel Lea Fox
You're such a great foster mom Rachel! Nixie's new owners will have an effortless time with her. It's hard but you're so great at it. I honestly can't believe how you do it- a friend was talking at a party about how she thought being a kitten-foster-mom was so great, you get kittens over and over again, they never get old, etc. and I'm like, You have to *say goodbye* to kittens over and...
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- anna sauce
And I'm *so glad* Nixie came out of her trouble. That is really great.
- anna sauce
You missed the part where Kevin yells down to me from upstairs "um, people are wondering how you have never been on a boat." me "what are you talking about?"...
- Rachel Lea Fox
This is by far the most annoying bug/issue I have with Friendfeed. Happens to me all the time when trying to edit an active comment/post in a conversation with the realtime river enabled.
Just edited the one above, no need to refresh page. But this has to be fixed, it's really annoying.
- yjl
yjl, this error is dependent on a combination of factors - I've seen the chance of error go up the more a thread of comments are being re-edited concurrently.
- Micah
Indiana has a death wish... Or a paper route! She does this now and then when I leave a bag on the floor. Don't worry... I don't let her out of our sight till we take the bag away.
she is on my lap now, still complete with bag and the things in the bag. :)
- Rachel Lea Fox
How do you keep her from shredding the papers before she delivers them? Does she get a lot of customer complaints over that - I would think she'd spend a fortune in refunds! ;-)
- Auntie Buttinsky Botts
Mary, she isn't much of a shredder, doesn't care for it. Her biggest complaint on her route is that she doesn't ever arrive. #2 is that she forgets to leave the paper even though she went there. ;)
- Rachel Lea Fox
Introducing The Cat’s Trapeze, For Kitties Who Climb PLUS BONUS GIVEAWAY | moderncat :: cat products, cat toys, cat furniture, and more…all with modern style - http://www.moderncat.net/2010...
"If you’ve got very active cats who need to take their energy out on something other than your curtains, then this may be the product for you. It’s The Cat’s Trapeze from The Netherlands and I’ve never seen anything like it. They sent us one to test out and as you can see, Ando thinks it’s pretty comfy, although he’s a little too lazy to use it as it is really intended, but I can certainly imagine how this could provide a good distraction for some active kittens. The Cat’s Trapeze was designed specifically to provide a place for cats to climb, which they do naturally. And wouldn’t you rather have them climb this instead of your curtains? The Cat’s Trapeze is made from durable, natural cotton/linen and comes in three sizes: single pillow, double pillow, and triple pillow, plus there’s a little hammock that can be attached to the bottom for an extra lounge spot. You can suspend The Cat’s Trapeze from the ceiling, or if your cats prefer a little more stability, place it against a wall or...
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- Katy S
from Bookmarklet
Dear hairy old man with the sagging moobs, thanks for standing in front of the open hotel window wearing nothing but your pannies. Arse! Can someone hand me some eye bleach, please?
What are you doing sharing a hotel room with MVB in Ely, NV?
- Jenny R
This entry is the Best of the day. Sorry for Jenny, it must be the Worst of the day to you. I am glad I can read what happened with laughter, not to witness.
- yjl
It's like you're standing on my front porch looking at my neighbors (who wants to trade?)
- Eric
I am *always* happy to make someone laugh, Yu-Jie Lin! :)
- Jenny R
Wait a second....if we're all in Ely, how about a FF meetup?! ;)
- Jenny R
From the AP article: "Patrick Stewart has been upgraded from captain — to knight. The actor — famous for playing Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation — officially became Sir Patrick Stewart when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday." I'm wondering if Her Royal Highness is a fan of his work on "American Dad."
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet
I have to check to see if a plant is toxic to cats before I can bring it inside because Plum feels the need to eat them. She went crazy over the rosemary I was wintering over this past year. My mom brought these roses from her flower beds to decorate tables yesterday. Good thing they're cat-safe.
- Katy S
It could be worse; Plum could prefer Warsteiner over flowers.
- Rob H.
She better not develop a taste for the beer - that beer is for my next beer bread.
- Katy S
The worst part is not so much the eating of the plants but the yakking up of said plants later. :-(
- Ladyepiphanybug
I don't know what is worse, the cats eating the plants and flowers, or, as mine do, batting them senseless until all the petals fall off. My cats don't eat flowers, they just beat them up.
- Mary Carmen
I don't know, either. The chewing and eating freaked me out a bit at first. Of course, Sophie shows no interest in them at all. Plum's just weird.
- Katy S
That's my little Plum cat, otherwise know as the JD (juvenile delinquent).
- Katy S
He thought it was funny, as I recall. I'd never seen this cat eat plants before so I was suprised how fast they disappeared. He had a psycho cat that liked to attack you while he was being petted (the cat, not the BF).
- Elizabeth Brown
"Since Pylons itself is so small, most of the changes since the 0.9.7 release have come through in the way of the various packages Pylons requires. Beaker, Routes, SQLAlchemy, and WebHelpers have received a variety of updates. As a result, updates have been flowing out even though Pylons itself hasn’t gotten many updates. Pylons 1.0 finally drops all the legacy handlers from the 0.9 series, reducing the codebase from ~1300 lines of code, to 1080. Not many frameworks actually shed code between releases, and I’d like to be able to keep Pylons this small going forward as we’ve shrunk the code-base for almost every release of Pylons since the 0.8 series."
- Adriano
from Bookmarklet
Is it bad that I choose beer for family functions based on what I can make with it later? I now have leftover beer to use for beer bread and for a carnitas recipe.
My company is so cheap that even the smallest, most trivial tech issue must be routed through a call center thousands of miles away. The in-house tech folks (of which I think there are 2 people left) installed a new version of MSWord on my computer, which is now not working. So instead of trifling with the call center, I'm using OpenOffice.
I made the Bell Pepper Soup from The Secrets Of Jesuit Soupmaking tonight. It's pretty tasty. Ingredients and instructions to follow in the opening comment.
2 cups bell pepper, finely minced, 1 cup minced onion, 1/4 cup carrots, minced, 3 slices bacon, minced, 2 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped, 4 cups beef and/or chicken stock, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh basil, 1 pound ground round. Instructions: 1. Saute the bell pepper, onion, carrot, garlic, and bacon, until the bacon is slightly browned. 2. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the ground round. 3. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes. 4. Adjust seasonings to taste.
- Katy S
Looks great. Didn't know such a book exists. I quite like the jesuits :)
- Brent
He also wrote a book about bread baking. :)
- Katy S
Moving kickstick! As you can probably see, Sophie's starting to get a plump belly. I think she needs more exercise. Also, it might be time to move the kittehs to a food for indoor cats. They were so scrawny when I got them that I didn't want to deprive them of extra calories, but it might be time to do so.
- Katy S