acidbasement

Three days old and the first cockatiel chick is in good shape. The big bulge between the neck and belly is the crop, which is full of food because the parents have been doing a good job. Three eggs still to hatch, but I suspect two are duds or otherwise dead because they look kinda grey. Lance and Pickles refuse to nest anywhere besides their cage floor, and this usually results in fewer eggs hatching, according to the interwebs. (edit: apologies for out of focus, and for the toy mess in the background)

Or "sleeping on the couch", as it's called in my house.

"Hello, Mrs. Maher? Hi, this is acidbasement. Yes, the one from the internet. Listen, it's come to our attention that your lawn looks too nice, and, well, it's making the rest of us look bad. Would you consider mowing less frequently and mulching please? We'd really appreciate it. Thanks, and have a great weekend!" Think it'll work? Awaiting your phone number.

You just have to lower your standards. I mow infrequently and mulch, my lawn wins no beauty pageants, and I'm at peace with that.

Helped a cockatiel chick out of its eggshell this morning. Three eggs to go. Our birds had one successful clutch in the winter, and since then they've had three duds (one of which was nasty - they attacked the chicks right after they hatched). This one looks like it's off to a good start, with father Lance already starting to feed it.

Happy birthday!

Vultures are very common around here too. Carry on, then. Carry on... Carrion? Anyway, bad puns aside, I just got a 7.5% raise. The next round's on me.

I don't pretend to have golden ears, but the shitty compression was annoyingly audible to me (sounded like ~96kHz mp3), even driving on a noisy gravel road. I wouldn't pay for it, personally.

Merry birthday Ari!

Happy bidet!

Happy belated!

Have a happy one, Shelly!

This one is my favourite so far - nearly spewed coffee on my computer. Thanks Mikey. Subscribed.

Deep condolences to you and Jim's family, Steve.

I heard a set of headefiled HF2s once. They sounded good. I thought the stock HF2s sounded good as well. What was the difference? I don't know, I heard them months apart from one another, but I'm pretty sure the sonic difference was not huge if it was there at all. It wouldn't be where I'd spend my money, but whatever floats your boat...

Please fax ASAP.

May 1st in Erickson.

Good on ya, Steve. A few years ago in Winnipeg, I gave an elderly lady a push (her car, that is), up an icy incline to her parking spot. She offered me money, which I refused. Rural areas still tend to be pretty good in the "good old days" regard. Where I live now (same place I grew up), if you drive your car into the ditch, you usually walk till you find a farmer with a tractor rather than calling for a tow truck. People with flat tires at the roadside are offered help, and the local bearded, dirty, crazy (or maybe he's a legit prophet) guy who has no car has absolutely no trouble hitchhiking wherever he needs to go.

Happy birthday Kevin!

Happy birthday Jeffy!

Congrats Shelly! The concert last night was great. We missed the first band (helsott), and an unexpected highlight was Trollfest - seven-piece brutal dissonant metal with saxophone and accordion. Tyr were better than I remembered, ensiferum possessed the same goodness as ever, and Heidevolk were amazing, as I expected. We'll be crossing into North Dakota in 20 minutes. Looking forward to the same show tonight.

Shall do. And here are the remaining tourdates.

I'm knocking off early to drive to Winnipeg with my wife for this show: And then we're driving to Minneapolis tomorrow for the same show, because who knows if Heidevolk will ever come back to North America?

Thanks - that's what I figured. In Manitoba the snowplows get to work pretty quickly, but salting the ice away can take awhile. You guys tend to be a lot more serious about your road maintenance south of the border.