Blow That Dough! -2021

[street]

This is also in the Golf thread. Just got my Application was successful for 2022 Open Championship tickets. I asked for July 10-13 practice rounds, so four days two people is 300 GBP.

Marriott's in Edinburgh going for about 450+ GBP/day. thinking staying the week use it as base....

so easy 3500 + 300 +?=?=?=? BTD !!!!!!!!!!!

Very nice way to BTD! Sounds like a relaxing, no stress week.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

So I can't recall if I posted when I ordered this or not, so my apologies if it's old news.

I purchased a robot cat litter box -- the Litter-Robot 3 Connect. It's wifi enabled so I had no choice but to get it!

I received it on Friday and set it up. I have 2 cats. One is very adventurous and doesn't let much of anything bother her. The other is timid, nervous and always over cautious.

The adventurous cat sniffed it right away and very nervously looked it over from top to bottom. But she ignored it for the first 24 hours. But then she used it and has used it every time she needs to since then. The second cat is, of course, ignoring it as she cautiously walks by it to use the old litter box which is currently still beside the new one. They say to let her to continue to use the old box, but don't clean it. Hopefully she'll realize it's stinky and choose the cleaner option of the new box.

As for how it works... it seems to do just as advertised so far. It's a big ball of sorts with litter in the bottom portion of it. The cat steps in, the added weight activates the box. The cat does its business and steps back out. The loss of weight is noted. 7 minutes later, the big ball rotates and the unused litter flows through a grid. The clumps of waste are too big to fit thru so they fall into a plastic bag lined-container underneath. The ball rotates back into position, ready for the next use.

The adventurous cat is still curious about the moving ball aspect. She climbed on top of it at one point (while it wasn't moving) and that, of course, triggers the added weight, so it did a clean cycle 7 minutes after she jumped back off.

The waste bin is electronically monitored and updates an app on my phone, so I can see how full it is getting. They say for 2 cats, it shouldn't need cleaned for one week. I'll likely clean it at least 2x a week since it's as simple as opening a drawer and changing out the bag.

We will see if Cat #2 can work up the courage to climb into the thing. At some point I'll just take away the old litter box and see if she chooses to use the new one or give me a typical cat reaction by peeing somewhere else in the house. Fingers crossed.

Adventurous cat just used it for the second time this morning while I was writing this posting! Yay.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

My grape broker does not offer anything from Oregon, Washington, Argentina or the Paso Robles area in California. I could get the from a place in Connecticut, but would have no way to keep them cold for the road trip here in SW PA.

I do get grapes and juice from Australia, Chile, NY, CA and South Africa.

Yes, it sounds like you have access to a very nice selection of varieties. I don't have that, but I feel fortunate for the arrangement I do have. Our local winemaking association arranges group buys; for whole grapes, we get only one variety, then we have a group crush (and use one of the member's motorized crusher/destemmer). For white juice, we get totes of a couple of varieties. We have also arranged group buys of frozen fruit, say in the spring, just to save on shipping.

Sometimes I wish I could easily get other varieties, but, honestly, one to three varieties at a time is probably all I REALLY want to manage.

 

[skyking1]

It sounds like a good quality crusher/destemmer mounted on a trailer would get good use.

 

[f35phixer]

This is also in the Golf thread. Just got my Application was successful for 2022 Open Championship tickets. I asked for July 10-13 practice rounds, so four days two people is 300 GBP.

Marriott's in Edinburgh going for about 450+ GBP/day. thinking staying the week use it as base....

so easy 3500 + 300 +?=?=?=? BTD !!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.fingal.co.uk/
a very cool looking boat to stay on. booked up....

https://thedunstane.cloud-reservations.net/BookHotel/Index
all booked up for Open ;-(

looks like Jon Rahm and Others are staying here...
Keep on searching.

OBTW when I used to go to FTW all the time, during Colonial tourney, Rory Sabbatini stayed in my hotel, talked to him a bit.

 

[Winemaker]

It sounds like a good quality crusher/destemmer mounted on a trailer would get good use.

For a small wine maker, this would work, as I have one of these. My grapes come in 36#lugs or boxes. It would blow off a trailer as it is kinda chintzy.

https://morewinemaking.com/products/italian-crusher-destemmer-manual-partially-stainless-1.html

Even this mechanized one, is not an option to mount.

https://morewinemaking.com/products/italian-crusher-destemmer-motorized-ss-hopper-auger-3.html


This one makes sense to put on a trailer, however, for a small winemaker it's not economical. Also, there would be a large waste issue, as it would have to be cleaned out after each use, no matter how small. It takes longer to clean one of these than run 108# of grapes through it. I certainly wouldn't want someone's Merlot grapes mixed up with my Pinot Noir, and vice versa. Then after cleaning, it would have to be sanitized. Driving it all over the county would get whatever dust, dirt, grime, rain, car/truck exhaust etc. More cleaning. If one would take the trailer to say the Walmart parking lot, and crush/destem there, The next issue is transporting a few hundred pounds of grapes, process them, then transport a few hundred gallons of sticky grape must in your car/truck. One also has to add those nasty, horrible, Godforsaken sulphites at 50ppm, so the must doesn't start to oxidize and turn brown, like an apple does. So I don't think this is practical for a small wine maker.

https://morewinemaking.com/products/jolly-40mv-destemmer-crusher-speed-control-2.html


I know out in California, they have grape processing stations for the bigger wineries, where you can take a truckload/gondola of grapes. What they cleanout with a hose or pressure washer, is about what a small winemaker would buy for himself.

 

[explanade]

I recently blew $2600 on a 55" OLED and it weighed nothing compared to my old 42" from 2003 or so. I could easily lift the 55" myself but needed help with the 42" one.

I blew $1349 on a 48-inch OLED back in June, also replacing a 42-inch plasma.

It's also much lighter but I paid for the installation to have it mounted, using the existing mount I had for the plasma.

 

[f35phixer]

This is also in the Golf thread. Just got my Application was successful for 2022 Open Championship tickets. I asked for July 10-13 practice rounds, so four days two people is 300 GBP.

Marriott's in Edinburgh going for about 450+ GBP/day. thinking staying the week use it as base....

so easy 3500 + 300 +?=?=?=? BTD !!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a BIG DUMMY !!!! We leave for Alaska cruise July 11, oh well.

R and A was kind enough to refund 300GBP

 

[jollystomper]

A cheap blow that dough, but it was for something we did not "need" . We play rummikub a lot, wore out the original Pressman game with painted tiles when the pandemic hit and bought a sturdier set last year. However, I like the look of the Rummikub Onyx edition, so we have it now. Definitely a stronger, sturdier feel than the set we have, and the black tile motif looks vibrant against the white surfaces we play on.

 

[Koolau]

I used to use an antique crusher. we would destem hundreds of pounds of grapes by hand, then run them through that crusher, we did a 30 gallon barrel once that way. I had a small press, also, to press the fermented juice out of the grapes.

Once I started making 59 gallon barrels I broke down and bought a manual crusher/destemmer. I also bought a press that was four times bigger than the first.


I would like to get a destemmer/crusher but they are extremely expensive for an amateur like me. They run up $3000 and up, and would take up too big of a footprint in the shop, for something used only 2 weeks out of the year.

All this talk of wine making reminds me of my amateur chemist days (age about 14) when I discovered how to make high-proof "vodka" from sugar and common yeast. Not elegant, but it did impress the guys in 8th grade - after school. And no worry of stems - though I found out later, I probably should have discarded more of the first cut, just in case it was contaminated with methanol. BUT, I still see pretty well, so I guess my hooch was safe. Carry on with the wine making. It sounds very interesting.

 

[street]

All this talk of wine making reminds me of my amateur chemist days (age about 14) when I discovered how to make high-proof "vodka" from sugar and common yeast. Not elegant, but it did impress the guys in 8th grade - after school. And no worry of stems - though I found out later, I probably should have discarded more of the first cut, just in case it was contaminated with methanol. BUT, I still see pretty well, so I guess my hooch was safe. Carry on with the wine making. It sounds very interesting.

I bet you had all kinds of friends.!!! The good old days Loolau!!

 

[Koolau]

I bet you had all kinds of friends.!!! The good old days Loolau!!

Like they say, "As long as yer buyin' you'll never run outta friends."

 

[street]

^ LOL!! True.

 

[finnski1]

I'm a BIG DUMMY !!!! We leave for Alaska cruise July 11, oh well.

R and A was kind enough to refund 300GBP

Hah!
You musty sometimes suffer from CRS disease like I do

 

[Trailwalker]

Phone Upgrades

I started off trying to save that dough by switching from Verizon to Visible. With incredible bad timing, Visible got hacked when I started the process. I got "stuck" in no man's land when setting up a Visible account and was told by Visible that I should start over and use a different email address than my primary one. I thought that was crazy and when I googled "Visible problems," I found about about the wide-spread hack going on.

My family was already not excited about switching to Visible, and the above problems caused a loss in all confidence and digging in their heels about switching from Verizon. So today I ordered us all new Iphone 13's from Verizon using large promotional credits to reduce the pain. My wife and I were due with 6s and SE (first generation). My adult daughter gets an early Christmas present. I was still frugal in getting the Mini. They moved up to the Pro.

 

[Koolau]

Over in another forum we were discussing the longevity of car batteries. I had bragged on the one that came in my last used car. Still going after 4 years! DW had to go to the BMV to renew her DL and... Nothing when she turned the car key. I said "no problem, I'll just use my lithium jumper." It got two cranks and locked out. No problem, I had a second one from the car we recently retired. Plugged it in, got two cranks and it locked out. Apparently, the battery had a dead cell preventing the jumpers from working.

Now what? Finally called my Ins. co. for a replacement battery. $200 delivered! I've never spent more than $110 for a car battery. If I still had a second car, I'd have just bought one myself and installed it. Looks like I could have done so for maybe $140.

Well, we needed the car so I had to BTD or walk! I thank God that over-paying for a battery is NOT a financial crisis in our family. YMMV

 

[street]

^ the price of batteries are outrageous. Koolau, my wife reminds me often when I have to BTD on things, that we are very lucky that we can afford these things others my struggle to pay for.
That always seems to humble me.

 

[Koolau]

^^

An excellent point! To many of us here, inflation and supply-chain interruption are an irritant and maybe an inconvenience. To many folks in our nation (and the world) they can be debilitating - even tragic.

Humbling is a good word.

 

[finnski1]

^ the price of batteries are outrageous. Koolau, my wife reminds me often when I have to BTD on things, that we are very lucky that we can afford these things others my struggle to pay for.
That always seems to humble me.

It's always good to step back and put things in perspective.

 

[RobbieB]

One thing I've noticed is they no longer give you any warning.

Back in the "old" days, you got a couple weeks notice. Engine began cranking slower and slower. Better go the store and get a new battery.

Now it's yesterday the car started fine, today it won't start. Better have 2 cars so you can go to the battery store and get a new battery.

 

[Koolau]

One thing I've noticed is they no longer give you any warning.

Back in the "old" days, you got a couple weeks notice. Engine began cranking slower and slower. Better go the store and get a new battery.

Now it's yesterday the car started fine, today it won't start. Better have 2 cars so you can go to the battery store and get a new battery.

Heh, heh, that's what I've been telling DW. But she's just too darn logical.

"Ko'olau, you wanna spend $10K on a used car that costs $550/year to insure and $300/year for tags - just in case a battery dies?"

She's right, of course but... YMMV

 

[MC Rider]

Heh, heh, that's what I've been telling DW. But she's just too darn logical.

"Ko'olau, you wanna spend $10K on a used car that costs $550/year to insure and $300/year for tags - just in case a battery dies?"

She's right, of course but... YMMV

I got a motorcycle for that. Also a jump start battery, and DW has her own car.

 

[Koolau]

I got a motorcycle for that. Also a jump start battery, and DW has her own car.

Belt AND suspenders. A true FIRE way to be prepared for anything.

 

[aja8888]

I got a motorcycle for that. Also a jump start battery, and DW has her own car.

No motorcycle anymore, but have both of the other things. I also have an Uber app on my phone if things get really squirrley.

 

[RobbieB]

I did the battery on the bike thing once. It worked but I sure could feel it. Glad it was only a short ride.