WTF-Beta

@Big_Al Lots of great ideas. Please thank Mrs Big Al for me!!

https://www.1stdibs.com/jewelry/necklaces/link-necklaces/4770-carats-kunzite-diamond-yellow-gold-necklace/id-j_24762502/ I decided to post this kunzite necklace after wanting to post something made of kunzite. It had me at hello. Love the design. Love kunzites. The most beautiful kunzite necklace I've seen belonged to Elizabeth Taylor. A KUNZITE, AMETHYST AND DIAMOND "TRIPHANES" SAUTOIR, BY VAN CLEEF & ARPELS | Christie's https://share.google/CLmw8QUYby5GYpYG9

@wtg and @Steve-Miller well that’s a relief!

At 4:22 a.m. on Friday, as Texas' Hill Country began to flood, a firefighter in Ingram – just upstream from Kerrville – asked the Kerr County Sheriff's Office to alert nearby residents, according to audio obtained by ABC affiliate KSAT. But Kerr County officials took nearly six hours to heed this call. "The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39," the firefighter said in the dispatch audio. "Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?" "Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor," a Kerr County Sheriff's Office dispatcher replied. The first alert didn't come through Kerr County's CodeRED system until 90 minutes later. Some messages didn't arrive until after 10 a.m. By then, hundreds of people had been swept away by the floodwaters. https://abcnews.go.com/US/kerr-county-officials-waited-90-minutes-send-emergency/story?id=123631023

I agree with you! But I'm going to make a point of looking through their scores more often, if for no other reason than I can listen and follow along, which I always love doing. Plus, I'm paying, soo....

@CHAS said in A musical update: Can you find out why the others cancelled? Probably but I don't want to bother the organizer too much. I suspect that maybe some of them are sick, and others maybe just weren't ready (they're college students in the music program here). It sounds like this concert had a smaller number of performers to begin with, so maybe the Nov. concert will be ok since there are more people on the program...

Could be real stone, ribbed marble, but I'm guessing man made. In hot climates like the photo suggests you'd take off footwear at the door. Soles of your feet are non-slip. Cool marble is lovely. In-laws in Malaysia have marble floors throughout the ground floor, and even wearing socks isn't a slip problem (but you sweat & could get foot rot and quickly learn not to). Though dress shoes with new leather soles are a bit slippery on marble.

What Bernard said. All of it. Thanks, Bernard.

PD the law allows the president to grant a one-time 90 stay if he believes a prospective sale is in the works. It doesn’t go into detail about any conditions that need to be satisfied so I am quite sure he can just do it. But only once, and only for 90 days.

I think it is fun! I would love to attend a party there. No way would I want to live there. Oh, and that blue and white check area rug goes with nothing. I am wondering if the house, stripped of all the byzantine gilded garbage, actually has good bones. Impossible to tell from the photos. Obviously they have an insane amount of money to be able to irrigate a lawn like that. I suppose it is possible they are in a less desertified area of AZ, but still.

@Steve-Miller Didn't think of that. Also a possibility.

You might expect American winemakers to be popping bottles of California sparkling wine these days. With President Trump's tariffs on the European Union, U.S.-made wine now has a greater price advantage over Italian prosecco and French Champagne. This is a classic case that protectionists make for tariffs: They help domestic producers. But the American winemakers we spoke with are more sour than bubbly about Trump's tariffs. "To me, it's awful. There's no upside," said Adolfo Hernandez, owner and winemaker at Monroy Wines in Sonoma County, Calif. So, why aren't tariffs a big win for American winemakers? We spoke to a bunch of them around the United States, and what they told us challenges the assumption that tariffs will help domestic industries. https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2025/04/17/g-s1-60718/tariffs-make-sour-grapes-american-winemakers

I would seriously consider moving there if I were younger. I read the language much better than I speak it. Was surprised to get a passing grade in a college French class. Did much better in a reading only class.

Oh, no. As others have said, you're leaving with your values intact, but what a loss for all of us. I'm so sorry this happened to you.

Just think, today's students will be perfectly prepared to work in today's Health and Human Services Department.

Birds are quite good fun really, certainly in comparison to the rest of nature; entertaining to watch flying, perched or walking, they come readily to food, come in lots of different sizes shapes & colours, and are very fragile short lived animals with a very small brain as I am reminded everytime one sadly flies into our windows. And a perfect reason to invest in quality binoculars, one of our greatest inventions.

My living room will have a farmhouse table smack in the center of the rectangular floorspace. I've had years to plan it. It will be a dining table, drafting table, puzzle table, and desk. The surface will be wood, no press board, no tile, and smooth. Along the outside might be ancillary pieces of furniture for storage, and a comfortable chair and ottoman. This chair will have a small table with its own light fixture. I'd like to have a bookshelf. The kitchens are not large enough for functional dining room tables. The dining room/ dining room table in my parents' house was the center of the life of the house. I want the same thing.

@RealPlayer I love it! That's definitely MD material!!

Thanks everyone! Yep, it couldn’t have worked out better! And I’m so glad we didn’t do an actual wall there instead, esp. given how nice the room is down there. And I am glad we got it installed now, before we moved. It’s definitely safer, and it’s one of those things that if you didn’t do right away, it would just stay that way forever. Until someone fell off the stairs

Coming today, I think.