I seriously doubt my dogs ...

... would appreciate traveling with me in this fashion.

What?

Similar items?

Owning a home bites sometimes ...

... especially when you're doing "home improvements". Lately, I've been trying to tweak little things in the house, before I start my major projects. Things like changing all my knobs so they're not these drab beige things which are found all throughout my house. So now I have some rooster knobs in my kitchen (going with a rooster theme), and some pewter knobs in my bathroom, along with different patterned knobs throughout the rest of the house (Hobby Lobby rocks). I also have been hanging more pictures and things in my rooms (which had been pretty sparse until this point), as well as fixing the tiny little things which have worn down but I didn't give much thought to. For instance, replacing a couple missing screws in the screen door frame, gutting my toilets and installing new flush kits, taking down some ugly ceiling fans and putting new lighting in.

All these things were not much of a problem, nary a hitch. I should have known the gremlins could come pay me a visit sooner or later though. Little did I know they'd all show up today. So I decided I wanted a peg board above my washer and dryer. Not a big deal right? WRONG. So very, very wrong.

Went to Home Depot, bought the plastic peg board (two 16" by 16" panels) along with all the relevant hardware. Bought anchors to put the boards up too. So I drilled the first set of holes and planted the anchors. Put the peg board up against the holes and started to drill, only to see the anchors and part of the sheet rock pull away. Argh! Tried another --different -- set of anchors only to see a similar thing happen. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

Call up the dad to ask him what the hell to do. He informs me that the studs should be 16 inches apart (duh) and if I find those, that I can just screw them into the wall. Go back to Home Depot, grab deeper (2 inch) screws and putty, return home, place putty into the holes I had drilled, and then screw those peg boards into the wall. Peg boards attached, I step back to look at my handiwork. Something doesn't look quite right though. Take out the tape measure and measure both ends. Guess what? Damn thing droops a quarter of an inch at one end. Argh!

To hell with it. Damn thing is going to be crooked until the next time I paint that laundry nook. With that decided, I get ready to push the dryer back into the nook. Look at the dryer vent hose and see that it's pretty worn. Run back out to Home Depot and grab a new one. Return home and go to pull the old hose up out of the floor. Yes, it runs through the floor. Foot after foot this hose pulls out, with no end in sight. Finally figure out that the hose runs through my entire crawl space to the vent outside. Lovely, oh and guess what ... I've never ever been in my crawl space. *sigh*

So, no laundry is getting done tonight, and tomorrow I need to crawl under my house to attach this new laundry vent hose up. Oh, and did I mention it's raining?

Made in the USA

Honestly, it's time to limit the amount of things individual consumers purchase from China. Here is the latest news about child items being contaminated with cadmium.

Lab testing organized by The Associated Press shows that it also is present in children's jewelry - sometimes at eye-popping levels exceeding 90 percent of the item's total weight.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

Cadmium is particularly dangerous for children because growing bodies readily absorb substances, and cadmium accumulates in the kidneys for decades.

"Just small amounts of chemicals may radically alter development," said Dr. Robert O. Wright, a professor at Harvard University's medical school and school of public health. "I can't even fathom why anyone would allow for even a small amount to be accessible."

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say that this is all being done intentionally ... to weaken our next generation. I'm not, but I still say that if China can't clean up its act, at the very least we as consumers should do so. Heck, in reading those articles, it appears that cadmium containing items are sold heavily in China, which makes me wonder if China actually cares about its own populace. And if China can't be bothered worrying about their own populace, what makes us think they'd care about ours?

And in case you were wondering where some of these products might be found, this article indicates several stores in the United States could be carrying them:

Some of the most troubling test results were for bracelet charms sold at Walmart, at the jewelry chain Claire's and at a dollar store. High amounts of cadmium also were detected in "The Princess and The Frog" movie-themed pendants.

Oddness

Who the heck is going to wear this thing?

Peekaru.

Sounds like a creepy children's video game turned cartoon.

WTF?

I know some people feel that the United States needs to do everything it can to restore itself in the eyes of other nations, but ... we shouldn't drop ourselves below our peer status.

There is no need to bow to other world leaders. Just shake their hands with a nice, firm handshake, and look them square in the goddamn eyes. How hard is that?

Souvenir?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

The son of a previous owner of the house tells police it was a souvenir he took home as a student at the University of Maryland's medical school more than 50 years ago.

Hopefully this asshat never practiced medicine.

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

If this is this where society is heading ... I want no part of it. To be further discouraged, Amazon only banned the game* AFTER people expressed outrage.

"We determined that we did not want to be selling this particular item," a spokeswoman said.

Baloney Amazon, you only pulled it once you realized this was going to cause a huge media backlash if you didn't.

The sad thing is that this game has been out since 2006, and we're only hearing about it now. There is an extremely seedy element to society, one that we're not often privy to. Women and children kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery? It happens more than we'd like to think. Abhorrent software such as the crud linked above? Obviously it exists, lurking just underneath the scum of the stagnant pool we call our society.

Isn't it time we had enough of such stuff, stood up, and demanded an end to it?

h/t: Sheril at the Intersection.

*I'm not even going to provide details here, go check out the link ... I don't want any traffic at my site for any idiots who are even considering this game.

North Korea is on crack

North Korea's 150 Day Battle. I'm not exactly sure who they're fighting, but they seem to be really excited about it (or at least trying to muster some excitement ... though one can only imagine how much verve one can wrestle up on an embargo-related empty stomach). I like the poster that's quoted in the story (at the very end).

"Let's run like a storm, riding on a flying horse," one street poster said. "Let's all become winners in the 150-day battle."

Eh? What the hell does that mean? North Korea has pegasi? Or is it pegasuses?

WTH?

Who in their right mind, when submitting the 16S rDNA gene sequence for a type strain, submits a sequence riddled with N*'s? It's a type strain for crying out loud ... you can't make sure you've got a clean sequence? I mean, WTF folks ... combined, a new forward and reverse read would cost you $7. You lazy sons of motherless goats.

Idiots!

*According to IUPAC nomenclature, N stands for aNy nucleotide, which certainly doesn't narrow the field for that position.

Oh, great.

Israel thinks it can kick Iran's ass. And it no doubt could. They also are ...

... building up its strike capabilities amid growing anxiety over Iran's nuclear ambitions and appears confident that a military attack would cripple Tehran's atomic program, even if it can't destroy it.

Yes, they could no doubt cripple Tehran's atomic program, and then cripple the world economy as well in the process.

Oh joy!

Another Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment ...

... SUV's are not passenger vehicles.

Ha ha ha ... yeah right.

You know what ...

... throw them all in jail (including the grandmother). Damn, bat-shit crazy family. Hopefully they'll find this child alive, and then find a family who can really take of her. Neither the mother, nor the grandmother appear fit to do so.