My wife's approach to managing my dad jokes is to simply acknowledge my inadequate attempt at humor by stating: "Jokes.".

I got a lengthy, unsolicited, email yesterday from 949 re: wheels and other light-weight high performance parts. So the subject was not ignored.

I hope I’m not being too tacky here, but it was, for the most part, fairly well written. I would cut and paste it, but I presume anyone who has purchased anything from 949 has received one.

DNM

Picking back up. I could not find anything loose (only 2 receptacles involved). Still tripped about 50% of the time. I switched the breaker hardware between circuits. No difference.

Conclusion is that there is likely an incompatibility between technologies.

I replaced both kitchen counter circuit breakers with GFCI units. I prefer that to either overload only, or overload with GFCI receptacles.

DNM

Spent yesterday and this morning cutting the steel tubing, cleaning up the ends, and trying my hand at welding. Not as easy as it looks. I can honestly say I have a new appreciation for the welder guy at work. My welds were some of the ugliest I have ever seen.

Of course, remembering to turn on the gas cylinder before welding resulted in much better looking welds. Surprisingly, grinding off the crappy welds (thumbs up for $15 angle grinder from Harbor Freight), I was pleasantly surprised to see that at least some of them were pretty decent.

There are plenty of things I would like to do or say this evening at this dinner, but I don't desire to jeopardize my girlfriend's employment (yes her boss is that petty that I can see it happening). I'm simply going to put on my "quiet, smile and nod" face for the dinner. No idea if they have pets......but they are legitimately out there.

Refuse to drink out of plastic cups, refuse to allow a microwave on their side of the office, etc.

*Would have responded sooner, but I try to stay off the interwebz on the weekends since I look at two screens 40+ hours per week.

I wish fewer food items were only available in plastic.

"Available only in plastic," as in the packaging?

This is one thing that I've found a bit unusual about Trader Joe's. Given their image of being all into the whole health-conscious, eco-friendly vibe, more of their fresh produce comes pre-packaged in plastic and cardboard containers than pretty much any other supermarket chain I can think of, which I would have thought would project an objectionable vine to the sort of people who attack restaurants which hand out plastic straws.

We tried the "Hello Fresh" meal supply-delivery kit, you know everything perfectly portioned out for two meals. It was actually pretty good. But very expensive, and the amount of waste produced by all that stuff was just mind boggling.

Cost is what I find puzzling about all of those services. Based on a quick back-of-napkin estimate, it seems you're paying roughly a 100% markup vs. what the contents would sell for individually. The only exceptions I can think of are when small amounts of uncommonly used perishable ingredients are called for, but even factoring in spoilage, that's a large cost delta.

That plus 1 or 2 day shipping.

When you aren't in one of the largest 5-8 cities in the country that you can get everything that day or the next day with free Amazon shipping, shipping can get pricey.

For example, and of course it could be different now, a few years ago I accidentally dropped my phone in a body of water.........dead. The difference between overnight, 2 day, and standard shipping for another Pixel phone was substantial.

I think another thing is we don't factor in is "hidden costs."

I need ginger and coconut milk to make this curry tonight, sure they are cheap. But I now I have to drive, use time, etc, to go get them. I'm becoming more acutely aware to that stuff as I get older.

Part of the reason why I keep an old phone (Galaxy S6) as a spare, and carry it with me when I travel.



Maybe my routine is different, but I drive past two grocery stores every day, and tend to visit them about 3x a week on average. I have a Google Doc which is my shopping list, and as I think about recipes I'd like to do in the coming days, items go onto that list.

It's extremely convenient. If I see / think of something yummy, I just grab the phone, open the Gdoc, and either add specific ingredients, or a note to research the recipe. This way, when I stop at the supermarket on my way home, I always have my shopping list with me.

I have a separate doc full of hotlinks to recipes which I've done in the past and liked.

Yeah, we typically try to plan a week in advance, get everything for those meals, etc. The "good" grocery stores here aren't inbetween work/home for either of us, and the closest is Wal-Mart.

Her finishing up school and working full-time, plus 4 animals, it's not as leisurely a pace as when I first moved down here and she still lived a 2.5 hour drive away.

I can definitely sympathize with the schedule thing.

And I'll admit to being somewhat surprised by how not-awful the selection at WalMart was. I rarely go myself (it's been many years since I lived in a town which had a walmart), but the family down in FL do most of their grocery shopping there, and when I've accompanied them, I've been surprised buy how much decent stuff they had. While I detest the actual experience of being inside a WalMart store, I probably wouldn't have a problem cooking decent food if they were my only option.

Speaking of which, an Amazon grocery store recently opened up downtown, and I keep meaning to go there. It's one of those where there's no checkout, you just grab whatever you want, stick it in your bag, and leave. Very curious to see how well that system works.

The schedule isn't too bad, I'm mostly just #1stworldproblems about not wanting to spend more time in the car. While OKC does have a surprising number of things to do, literally the only city in the country larger, area-wise, is Jacksonville. Meaning it's a PITA to get around to go do that stuff.

Ive got a cat problem and Im hoping you guys may have some advice.

I took in a 1 y/o Bombay from a family member. Super cool cat. Will post pics later.
The problem is that he is a total pig. My other cat (Nixie) is responsible enough to have the massive gravity feeder that only needs filling once a week, but this little dude will eat whatever food is available at the moment. At a year old hes already looking a little big in the middle (Imagine an all black bowling pin).
So I need to limit his food but I also dont want to starve my responsible cat. Also, Im lazy, so separating them to eat twice a day is probably not going to happen.

My mind immediately goes to trying to build an automated feeder that will only dispense a certain amount to each cat within a day. I figured I could 3D print some kind of auger and drive it with a stepper motor or continuous rotation servo, and have it use RFID to distinguish the cats from each other. It would only dispense a small amount at a time to help pace the piggy and also prevent him from eating Nixies leftovers.

That being said, Im willing to explore a more simple solution and Im curious if any of you guys have successfully dealt with this problem.

Don't be lazy sounds like the best option, but I can't say much because I'm the epitome of lazy.

Don't really even need to separate them. Change from "food all the time" to "food twice daily." And just monitor them while they eat. It'll suck for a short while for Nixie, but just give them a 10 minute window that you babysit both of them while they eat. After 10 minutes is up, the food goes up.

If new kitty goes after Nixie's food during that 10 minutes, scoop him up and turn him away. Wash, rinse, repeat as necessary until conditioned.

We have same scenario in this household. What has ended up happening is that generally the slow cat has sped up his eating enough that he doesn't get bullied by either of the other two when they're done. The two that try to steal food only steal from each other, and it generally works out in the end.

All three cats stay at a healthy weight. :)