What is pissing you off this time?

[Snakeadelic]

And what's actually up my proverbial butt today is this:

Okay, so a major restaurant chain, Chipotle (where my neighbor's parents eat at least once a week, often with other family members; we don't have one in this county and I'm not sure about the rest of the state), just announced a massive data theft from non-chip card readers. This has, understandably, weakened faith in the security of ANY system involving magnetic-strip cards (like the bank card I have, because my bank can't afford chip cards yet).

Also like my EBT benefits card, which is how I access my (no doubt doomed by this latest federal budget gutting all such programs for military and border wall spending) food stamps, aka SNAP benefits.

The state just decided it'd be a brilliant plan to require SNAP recipients to sign up with a THIRD PARTY, non-state-run website in order to be able to check their balance online.

For most people, it's annoying. For me, it's panic-attack-triggering. I'm supposed to trust some 3rd party, whose Terms of Service I read and really didn't find myself comfortable with, to track how I use federally-issued benefits? They already had that contained in a tidy little state-run app that's been working great for SIX YEARS. Now, despite the fact that the dental "surgery" last fall has permanently damaged my hearing even more, I get to start using the (unladylike words) automated operator before I can go food shopping. Every time I need to go food shopping, which is like twice a week when I'm still dealing with 3 different medically restricted diets on my shopping list! And between my terrible timing with conversations by phone and my hearing loss, it's the phone or hope nobody hacks this third-party benefit tracker!

[Snakeadelic]

And Grav, I feel your dishwashing pain. Literally. I washed ALL the dishes by hand for 30 years, from the time I was 10 and was informed that dishes were now my chore until the cracked, swollen, purple, bleeding knuckles were diagnosed as dermatitis eczema and my doc told me when I was 40 that I was no longer to be putting my hands in hot soapy water routinely if I didn't want my skin to start peeling off.

I'd love it if someone would invent an apartment-affordable dishwasher that didn't leave that nasty white sticky-oily scurf all over "clean" dishes no matter what soap gets used. My neighbor does use his dishwasher (we barely remember to run it a couple times a year for the sake of the pipes) and half the time I have to make him hand-wash that crap off because I don't care if YOU think it's clean, if I can scrape sticky crap off it I am NOT putting my food on it!

[Snakeadelic]

Originally Posted by sexobon

At least I remembered that telling him to bite on a bullet was contraindicated in this instance.

Thanks to my neighbor's addiction to old Western movies and my addiction to the current Marvel Cinematic Universe, I can say with much snickering "I understood that reference!"

I'd heard it all my life. Surprised the hell outta me (as I did not watch westerns growing up or later in life, they just don't do it for me) when I found out that bullet casings used to be used as dental crowns!

[Gravdigr]

Brand new microwave.

1100 watts.

Big warning inside the door "ooooooowweeeee this here is a 1100 watt motherfucking monster. be careful! this cooks like nothing you have ever seen. you'll burn food. you'll get tumors. birth defects out the wazoo. beware this awesome motherfucker."

Now this morning I woke up, refreshed from a good night's sleep, and thought to myself "Self (that's what I call myself), wouldn't a nice, juicy, thick ground venison steak and some homemade baked beans be just delish this fine day?"

And then the microwave said FUCK YOU!

A simple operation; put the frozen meat in the microwave, press defrost, press 1, then 5, for "pounds of food". Wait, whut? Just "food"? 1.5 pounds of frozen ground venison took 3 minutes and change on the Old & Busted.

On the new, technological marvel microwave?

15+ minutes!!!!

Ok, Self, you read the buttons wrong. You misunderstood. Read the fucking manual.

The manual tells me to do exactly what I did. It also directs me to "stop the process every few minutes, and remove the defrosted portion."

I already hate this motherfucking turd. It's not been in the house for 48 hours. And I hate this fucking thing.

And there has not been a single button pressed successfully on the first try by anyone in the house.

To open the door, ya press a big damn button by the door. The spring behind the button has more pressure than the microwave weighs, so the microwave moves every goddamn time you try to open the door. Two hands to open the door.

Aren't things supposed to get easier/better/more with each generation of technology?

Man. There ain't nothing like failure first goddamn thing in ya day to set the mood.

Fuck you, too, Panasonic. Your microwave is a piece of shit. You better stretch that $150 bucks long and far. Because you ain't EVER gonna see any more of my money.

[sexobon]

What did the online reviews for that make and model say?

[Gravdigr]

They said that Gravdigr shoulda read some damn reviews, that's what they said.

Where was you when I was counting money?

[lumberjim]

Catch any mice yet? We've had a minor ant invasion here. And the bathroom sink faucet is all clogged up. Annoying while washing hands, but forgettable as soon as you leave the room. It's been getting worse for a couple months. Might tackle that today on my extra day off.

[footfootfoot]

Send it back. This is 'merka.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

Catch any mice yet? We've had a minor ant invasion here. And the bathroom sink faucet is all clogged up. Annoying while washing hands, but forgettable as soon as you leave the room. It's been getting worse for a couple months. Might tackle that today on my extra day off.

Little tiny black ants? I get them every spring for about two weeks then they disappear for another year.

[glatt]

We have had very good luck with Terro bait stations to get rid of ants. They love the stuff and you get a thick trail of them going to the bait station. Then after a couple days, you don't see any more.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

Catch any mice yet? We've had a minor ant invasion here. And the bathroom sink faucet is all clogged up. Annoying while washing hands, but forgettable as soon as you leave the room. It's been getting worse for a couple months. Might tackle that today on my extra day off.

Got him this morning, in the sticky trap. Looked like he'd been stuck there most of the night. Wasn't there yesterday morning.

Bashed him in his tiny little head w/a tiny little shovel.

Meh, he's out of my misery, anyway.

[lumberjim]

Ooooo. Damn. Up close and personal like. I use the white plastic kind with the pointy teeth. Put them on the perimeter baited with peanut butter. Snap!

I had 4 mice last winter. Now I have cats.

And yes, Bruce, the same kind. They peaked on the day of they party, naturally, but have dropped off. I may go get one of those Terro things just the same. There are still a few stragglers

[footfootfoot]

If you go around under your cabinets with spray foam you can exclude them from getting inside the drawer area. I can't really explain it, I'm all sick with a flu or Lyme or some shit. I have to go to the doc tomorrow.

In any case, get a can of foam, take out all the drawers and spray up any cracks the fuckers can squeeze through. Also where pipes penetrate the floors. They hate 0 steel wool, pack some of that shit in there and then spray. Tell them I said to go fuck themselves.

[DanaC]

Poor Foots

[lumberjim]

If you're thinking about going to the doctor, it probably means you should have gone days ago. Go.