Battle Kitten: Ascension

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

31 minutes ago, fleaball said:

I think I got a good prof tbh. I'd heard horror stories from other classes but I had a guy who genuinely wanted us to learn it. I definitely like general chemistry better though, because math was a lot easier than drawing fucking compounds all the time. It's kind of funny though, because I'm allergic to a compound called paraphenylenediamine and I remember learning what each part of the name meant in organic, but I remember nothing about it. It's in my allergy list in my medical records because it's related to certain drugs, and none of the nurses ever pronounce it right. Which is slightly disconcerting because I'm sure they had to take that class. 

You'd be amazed at the amount of ridiculous pronunciations medical professionals have to memorize.

[Sylvaa]

2 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

You'd be amazed at the amount of ridiculous pronunciations medical professionals have to memorize.

 

Not quite the same, but two of my most recent initiatives were Extracorporeal Photopheresis and Intraoperative Neuromonitoring.

[Severine]

Organic chemistry was one of my favourite classes in high school (it's part of what made me want to do botany at university) so I had a good introduction to it and really adored it. But, like Flea, I had a really good instructor. He genuinely loved it and thought it was interesting and fun, and he really passed on that enthusiasm to me. On top of that he was good at explaining things. But I think most people have really bad orgchem experiences because the odd time it comes up and I say I enjoyed it, I always get some bitter comment like "well you must have had an easy teacher" or something catty like that.

 

FWIW a friend of mine works in a chemistry lab and 80% of his job is really, really repetitive and boring. So you probably made the right call.

[fleaball]

I’m helping my father make peanut butter banana whoopie pies, which neither of us has ever made before, to bring to my uncle’s tomorrow. Pray for us. 

[fleaball]

For the entire past week I’ve been asking him if he has everything he needs, does he want to make a practice batch, do we have all the equipment. And every time he’s said yes, he’s got everything and no he doesn’t want to practice because we can just follow the recipe and he doesn’t want to have an extra batch around the house to eat by himself. (“Take them to work and tell them your daughter made them if you’re afraid baking isn’t manly.”)

 

Both the batter and the frosting filler require an electric mixer/beater to get them light and fluffy. 

 

GUESS WHAT WE DON’T HAVE?! We have two beater attachments for a machine that’s MIA, and a machine that’s missing one of the two attachments. He thought we could get away with just the one and surprise, nope. It just flings sugar around the kitchen. Now the batter and the frosting are both sitting in the fridge so the butter doesn’t spoil while he goes to Kohl’s and looks for a mixer. I’ve watched enough British Bake-Off to know these whoopie pies are probably fucked. Huzzah. 

 

Edit: why did he go to Kohl’s instead of another store where they’d be cheaper? Because he doesn’t know where his debit card is, so he’s just going to use his Kohl’s charge. (Why not use either of his two credit cards? Who the fuck knows.)

[fleaball]

Istg y’all if there’s an afterlife i better be on the express train to The Good Place based solely on the fact that I haven’t murdered my family. 

 

To add extra hilarity to the night, I can very easily imagine what my mother would be saying and doing if she were here right now. It would not be pretty. 

[fleaball]

Aaaaand I just watched a mouse run under the stove. 

[fleaball]

That was the most exhausting 3.5 hours of my life jfc. Like I am physically and mentally drained after that. It’s a good thing I decided not to go driving tonight because he would have either burned down the house or just completely fucked up everything. For the record I didn’t decide against driving because of him; if I’d wanted to go out I totally would have let him fuck up all by himself. 

[WhiteGhost]

3 hours ago, fleaball said:

I’ve watched enough British Bake-Off to know these whoopie pies are probably fucked.

How did they turn out?  I'm almost afraid to ask...

[fleaball]

10 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

How did they turn out?  I'm almost afraid to ask...

They look like absolute shit tbh. I swear I can see chunks of butter mixed in still? I didn’t try them because we only made 10 (it’s supposed to make 12 but lol what is math?) and that’s exactly the number of people who will be there for dinner. I did try the second batch of frosting though, that turned out well. 

[fleaball]

Lesson from the past several days: I can't win if I sit back and let my father try to do things for himself (he fucked up the whoopie pies, putting plastic on the windows, AND fucked up buying thermal curtains last week because he didn't bother to check they were all the same size) and but I can't win if I do everything myself either, because then he gets pissy about not being included or not being able to do anything himself or he just doesn't like what I do. There's also no meeting in the middle because if I try to guide him it still comes out wrong. If I hit the lottery and moved out tomorrow, I'd spend the rest of my life checking the news to see when the house burns down or gets blown up (because who checks to see if the gas stove is actually lit before walking away??) or something. It would be fucking ridiculous. 

 

Aaaaand there's going to be another medication adventure in the future, which I'm dreading. 

 

Now I'm going to go to bed so I can get up earlyish and go driving if I can find a gas station that's open since I'm an idiot and forgot to go yesterday. Womp.

[Severine]

14 hours ago, fleaball said:

Aaaaand I just watched a mouse run under the stove. 

 

Cats are not doing their fair share around the house.

 

And yeah it seems like a screwed-either-way situation with your dad. But at least once you've moved out you won't have it in your face all the time, even if you do have that voice in the back of your head wondering how he's screwing things up. Something to look forward to. 

 

Maybe there should be some kind of life skills boot camp for people like your dad (and brother). Cart them off to some professional facility where they can have unrelated professionals teach them to do shit instead of their long-suffering family members. And don't let them out until they can pay bills, make simple food without giving themselves food poisoning, and arrange important repairs for their house.

[fleaball]

1 hour ago, Severine said:

 

Cats are not doing their fair share around the house.

They’ve been staking out the kitchen for a week and a half. Boobcat keeps hanging out on the counter at night and it’s adorable. And I heard fat kitty scramble at something last night. They’re just not getting the thing, apparently. Jerks. It’ll be an adventure if they do though: boobcat plays with them until they die and then just walks away, while fat kitty sometimes eats them whole and sometimes just eats part of them and walks away when he’s done. x_x

 

1 hour ago, Severine said:

 

And yeah it seems like a screwed-either-way situation with your dad. But at least once you've moved out you won't have it in your face all the time, even if you do have that voice in the back of your head wondering how he's screwing things up. Something to look forward to. 

Yeahhhhh. If I ever get there. 

 

1 hour ago, Severine said:

 

Maybe there should be some kind of life skills boot camp for people like your dad (and brother). Cart them off to some professional facility where they can have unrelated professionals teach them to do shit instead of their long-suffering family members. And don't let them out until they can pay bills, make simple food without giving themselves food poisoning, and arrange important repairs for their house.

FTFY. But yeah that would be nice. And then I could clean the house while they were gone and threaten them if they ever fucked it up again. 

[fleaball]

Called my father, apparently the whoopie pies went over really well. I am shocked. 

 

In other news, I’m at McDonald’s because it’s the only thing open right now and literally the second after I paid the fry machine flared up and they used a fire extinguisher on it so I highly doubt I’m getting my food. Fml man. 

 

edit: got burgers bc they can’t fry anything after getting the chemicals in the oil. Womp. 

[WhiteGhost]

6 hours ago, fleaball said:

Called my father, apparently the whoopie pies went over really well. I am shocked.

The key is to manage expectations.  If they are expecting a dumpster fire, anything above that is a raging success  

[Arkania]

(I read some pages of you battel log but can't remember, if this was answered or even asked)

 

Has your Dad always been like this?

[fleaball]

14 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

The key is to manage expectations.  If they are expecting a dumpster fire, anything above that is a raging success  

He brought me home a leftover one and I’m afraid to eat it. Help. 

 

8 hours ago, Arkania said:

(I read some pages of you battel log but can't remember, if this was answered or even asked)

 

Has your Dad always been like this?

Always. Doesn’t read or listen to directions, won’t ask for help, digs in and does things his way even when it’s become blatantly obvious that his way won’t work. He’ll listen to me more than he listened to my mother or his own parents, but it’s still an epic struggle. 

[Sylvaa]

On 11/22/2018 at 7:15 PM, fleaball said:

Called my father, apparently the whoopie pies went over really well. I am shocked. 

 

In other news, I’m at McDonald’s because it’s the only thing open right now and literally the second after I paid the fry machine flared up and they used a fire extinguisher on it so I highly doubt I’m getting my food. Fml man. 

 

edit: got burgers bc they can’t fry anything after getting the chemicals in the oil. Womp. 

 

True story: my daughter now works at McD's and apparently last week their nugget fryer also caught on fire. Is this a common thing that I was unaware of?

[Severine]

56 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

True story: my daughter now works at McD's and apparently last week their nugget fryer also caught on fire. Is this a common thing that I was unaware of?

 

My little brother worked at a McDonald's from 2001-2003 and they had a "X days since fire, flood, or raccoon incident" sign in the employee break room, created and updated by one of the employees. I don't think they had many fires but with those three things combined the counter apparently seldom got above two weeks.

 

Toronto has serious problems with raccoons getting into dumpsters and trash bins and making a giant mess, before anyone wonders what that part is about.

[fleaball]

Just started a post about how all my motivation from last weekend dissolved and I can't seem to make myself do anything, but deleted it because writing a post takes too much effort. Awesome. 

 

In other news, my father said when he came home from my uncle's on Thanksgiving he saw boobcat walking around with a mouse in his mouth. He swears it was dead and the cat was looking for somewhere to stash it, but I've seen them play dead before when he's grabbed them and then run away when he puts them down. Haven't found a dead one anywhere and haven't smelled it either, so I'm guessing it got away. Both cats are still staking out the kitchen when no humans are around so there are probably more. Yay old houses in cold weather.

[RES]

8 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

 

True story: my daughter now works at McD's and apparently last week their nugget fryer also caught on fire. Is this a common thing that I was unaware of?

Any fryer can catch fire if it's not cleaned properly and often enough.

[Arkania]

We have mice in the house all the time. Because the cat is dumb sometimes

[fleaball]

Got a LinkedIn email this morning from a recruiter for a bank. They have an opening for a Corporate Sales Assistant in downtown Boston and she wants to talk. I really don’t want to work in a bank again but I wonder if I should go after it just for the sake of getting a job and having something else on my resume. But otoh, bank stuff doesn’t necessarily transfer to other office work? So ugh. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

14 minutes ago, fleaball said:

Got a LinkedIn email this morning from a recruiter for a bank. They have an opening for a Corporate Sales Assistant in downtown Boston and she wants to talk. I really don’t want to work in a bank again but I wonder if I should go after it just for the sake of getting a job and having something else on my resume. But otoh, bank stuff doesn’t necessarily transfer to other office work? So ugh. 

Do you think you'll hate working in a bank more or less than working for a rideshare company and being around your family a lot?

[fleaball]

10 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Do you think you'll hate working in a bank more or less than working for a rideshare company and being around your family a lot?

I was literally thinking earlier that I can’t wait to get a 9-5 because it will mean several more hours out of the house that I won’t have to deal with my father. So there’s that.