Podcasts about eew

She's ready for player two.Based on the post of MsCherylTerra, in 3 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at My First Time.Player one is me, Ramona Roth. I'm nineteen, blue hair, pierce eyebrow, former president of the student council, virgin.War is hell, they say, but I say they're wrong.Hell is insanity, and insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.Hell is false hopes and flagrant disappointment.Hell is knowing that the squabbling of Ilyra, the princess from the far-off planet of Nianus, and Jostok, the snarky-but-pleasantly-ripped humanoid alien soldier from Quighnan, would attract the attention of Izzon's monstrous space beast.It's knowing that the beast would destroy the vent your plucky band of misfits was crawling through.It's knowing that you'd all tumble into the cavernous belly of the spaceship with only the last-second triggering of a force-field from your omni-cuff to prevent you from turning into gizzard soup on the space-grey floor.I watched Jostok realize that the force field hadn't prevented the princess from being crushed beneath the weight of the metal that tumbled from above. I watched him separate her from the tangled pile of bodies and bionic limbs, cradling her barely conscious form against one beefy, armor-clad bicep.I watched her brilliant violet eyes flutter open, and saw the little half-smile on her face as he called her by her name, and heard the weakness in her voice as she reminded him that it was Princess Ilyra to him. I heard Jostok chuckle wetly and assure her she was going to make it.After all, she was the princess. This was not how princesses died.Which was true, because she didn't die like that.Izzon's beast hurled itself to the ground in front of us, its weight making the spaceship itself shudder violently. A beam of light shot forth from its gaping maw, wrenching Ilyra from Jostok's arms. He reached for her, but before his bionic arm was even fully extended, the beast had pulled her into the air, clutched her between its massive claws, and snapped her in half like she was a fucking Kit Kat bar.So, she died like that instead.There was a beat; a pause as horror dawned across the party. A splash of blood splattered on the floor followed by the delicate circlet Ilyra always wore."No," breathed Jostok.A metallic cackle from above filled the room."So much for your princess," Izzon said as he descended on a floating platform.He landed just in front of the beast. Two long strides brought him to the circlet, and he plucked it from the pool of blood before making a mockery of Ilyra's memory and placing the fragile band of metal on his horned forehead."You killed her," Jostok said, his voice wavering."Well, duh," Izzon said, chuckling. "What, you think this is your fairytale or something, Quighnan? You kill the horrible, evil, sad little man who was just trying to get back what was rightfully his? You think you save the world, you get the girl, you get the glory?"His smile faded, and he straightened the circlet before reaching for his omni-cuff."Well, Quighnan, I have news for you. You failed. The world is mine, the girl is dead, and you; ""Shut up, you piece of Cul excrement!" Jostok roared."Or what?" Izzon taunted."Or this," I muttered.Surprise flashed across Izzon's face as Jostok smashed his omni-cuff, using the last of its power to create his trademark rocket launcher. Hefting it over his shoulder, he screamed as he fired it. Izzon's beast stepped forward, snatching its master from the ground seconds before the ball of certain death hit him, and it was time for me to take over.The battle was hell. It was a place I'd been a million times before, and I let the world around me fade as I focused on Izzon and Izzon alone. His beast didn't like that, of course, but the beast wasn't my concern. There were others to fight the beast; only I could fight Izzon.Sweat beaded on my forehead and dryness scratched at my eyes. I refused to look away, refused to be distracted for even a millisecond from my task. Izzon darted around the battlefield, firing laser after laser in my direction, but I knew how to dodge them. I knew how to use them against him; I knew how to lure the beast to just the right spot for Izzon to maim it himself.And I knew what would happen next.The world shook, a rumbling that vibrated through my bones. Izzon's platform shot up, and I tracked it, ignoring the shouts and cries of the battle raging around me. High above, I saw the flash of light, and I hurled myself out of the way moments before a ball of plasma crashed down and punched a hole through the entire ship.A rush of air sucked through the floor, and I clung to the strategically placed pole for dear life, still refusing to take my eyes off Izzon's platform. I waited, watched, my heart racing as he descended, and descended, and;"Now," I said through clenched teeth, and I jumped.Wind and suction twirled around me as I fought against the force with everything in me. It was a Hail Mary, a last-ditch effort, a moment of pure insanity as I mashed at the omni-cuff wildly. I mashed, and mashed, and mashed, and;I made it.I got to the platform."Oh my fuck," I breathed. "Oh fuck, oh frak, oh; fruck."I finally did it.Izzon stood before me, his wretched face twisted in anger. I pointed my weapon at him, just as I dreamed I would a thousand times before, and without so much as a second thought, I began to fire. One shot hit and his body jostled; another and red splattered around me; one more and;And all went dark.Sudden silence replaced the sounds of battle as blackness overtook me. For half a moment, I thought I had died, like for-real died. Then, my eyes adjusted, and across from me I saw the form of a woman with pale skin, wide eyes, and bright blue hair in the depths of a black mirror."No," I whispered.The woman mimicked me."No," I said again, a low groan as realization dawned on me.The woman's face crumpled. A bolt of lightning flashed through the basement window, and as thunder roared, I screamed."You've got to be frucking kidding me!" I shrieked, and I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I burst into tears."Ramona!" my mom shouted distantly.I ignored her cry; tears were streaming down my cheeks as frantic footsteps thudded on the stairs. Despondently, I slid off the couch and crumpled to the floor, clutching my controller to my chest as I sobbed."Ramona!" Mom gasped again, the faint glow of her cell phone flashlight spilling across the basement. "Are you hurt? Ramona, talk to me, w-what happened, are you; ""The power," I whimpered as she reached me and hesitantly touched my shoulder. "The power went out, and I was so close.""Close to; what?""Beating Izzon," I sniffed.Silent tension filled the basement."In a game," she said flatly."Well, yeah, but; ""You screamed bloody murder in the middle of a huge thunderstorm because the power went out during a game."It was no use trying to explain to her that I'd been stuck on the boss fight in The Circlet of Nianus for days. I stared sullenly across the basement at the darkened TV as Mom launched into another one of her ranting lectures that had become routine since I'd returned home for the summer after my first year of university."This is not proper behavior for a nineteen-year-old woman," she said, probably. I would've had to have been listening to know for sure, which I wasn't, but all her lectures were pretty much the same. "Christ, Ramona, it's like I don't even know who you are anymore. What happened to the sweet girl who left for university last August?"Then, if that lecture was anything like the other ones; which it likely was, but I still wasn't listening; she would have started tearing up."I don't know what I did to deserve you acting like this,   Ramona," she probably said in a watery voice. "What happened to my goody-two-shoes straight-laced brown-noser who would never dream of putting a toe out of line and who I, as the head of the Minwack Falls Homeowners Association, could truly be proud of since she was as cookie-cutter and put-together as the yards and fences I work so hard to keep in line at all times?"Well, she probably didn't say that last part. At least, not out loud. But the implication was there. When I tuned back in to the conversation, she was shaking her head as she looked dramatically in the other direction."Honestly,   Ramona, maybe we made a mistake," she was saying, for real that time. "Sending you to that school; I worried that you weren't ready and now; ""I was perfectly ready to go to university," I said dully. "And I'm an adult, so you didn't send me anywhere. I chose to go. And my name is Ramona.""Adults don't throw tantrums because of a silly game.""It's not silly," I said through gritted teeth. "This is what I want to do with my life.""Play games.""Make games.""Hmm," she said. "Be that as it may, I highly doubt you'll find a summer job making games. I charged the laptop battery up earlier today, so if the power stays out, we can still work on your resume tonight."I sighed. "I have a resume. I already asked if they were hiring at The Sword and Dice and they said they'd get back to me.""I doubt the comic book store is hiring," she said, unimpressed, before she started towards the stairs. "I'm surprised Jordan Cooper's managed to keep it open as long as he has. I'll go down to The Enchanted Florist tomorrow and speak with Owen. That girl he has working there was incredibly rude to me the other day and refused to call him so I could make a complaint about her.""Okay, Karen," I muttered under my breath.Mom turned. "What was that?""Nothing."She clearly didn't believe me and shot a very Karen-esque look in my direction. "Well, if he's willing to hire her, I bet he's one of the few people in town who would be willing to overlook your new; style and possibly offer you a job."And there it was; yet another dig at my hair, and my new eyebrow piercing, and the fact that I wasn't dressed like her President of the Student Council Princess anymore.I wish I could say it had been a gradual transformation, that I hadn't been the stereotypical example of the good-girl going wild as soon as she was on her own for the first time. However, years of living with Liz Roth, head of the Minwack Falls Homeowners Association, vice-president of the Minwack Falls High School Parent-Teacher Association, and volunteer board member for the Minwack Falls Good Neighbor Society, had instilled an almost-detrimental instinct to be honest in me.I was absolutely the model of a rebellious girl experiencing life away from an overbearing mother and semi-absent father.I'd left for university as a geeky girl with suitcases full of modest blouses and nice-but-not-too-tight jeans. At the end of the semester, I returned home with suitcases full of pop culture t-shirts, dark jeans that were ripped in all the right places, and Chuck Taylors that I'd kept on my feet day in and day out so I could get that worn-in look as fast as possible. I was still geeky and still a girl, but now that girl had bright blue hair, an eyebrow ring, and an exasperatedly cynical attitude.I loved who I had become. I loved being Ramona, the girl with wild hair and full of laughter. I loved geeking out with my friends over video games and sci-fi movies and superheroes. I loved being able to show people that girl instead of the girl I had to be under my mother's roof.Back home, though, that girl wasn't welcome. That girl was an embarrassment to the head of the H O A. Worse, I was in for another three full months of putting up with my mom's pressure to dye my hair back to a respectable color and stop wearing studded belts and ripped jeans."Teach you that your choices have consequences," Mom was saying, and I'd been so distracted I hadn't even bothered imagining what she might have said. "If The Enchanted Florist won't hire you, you'll need to get your hair fixed.""My hair isn't broken.""I'm not letting you sit down here playing video games all summer. You need to get a job.""Trust me, I'd like nothing more," I said. "I could use the break."Before Mom could respond; and trust me, her inner Karen was desperate to give me a piece of its mind; we were interrupted by the sound of the door opening above us. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly."Your father's home," she said unnecessarily. "Finish tidying up here and come set the table."I waited until she had started back up the basement stairs to let out the breath I'd been holding, leaning miserably against the couch as the darkness enveloped me again.It was going to be a long frucking summer.Summer Expectations.I was saved from having to work on my resume with my mom peering over my shoulder by her innate need to be involved in every disaster.Dinner was blissfully quiet. Dad didn't say much, as per usual, and Mom's constant chatter manifested as mumbled frustrations while she scrolled through the town Facebook page on her phone, the mushy broccoli and dry chicken on her plate abandoned as she took control of the situation via social media.As quickly as I could, I shoveled bite after bite of mediocre, overcooked blandness into my mouth. Like most of my classmates in first year, I'd gained the ubiquitous Freshman Fifteen, but I hadn't minded in the slightest. I'd been relatively thin most of my life, and putting on some weight had finally made me look less like a twelve-year-old boy and more like an actual, honest-to-God woman.Unfortunately, a full summer of my mom's cooking meant that I'd probably slim down to nothingness again unless I started stopping by the Hokey Pokey Ice Cream Parlor twice a day. Which wasn't a terrible idea, actually; their ice cream was all homemade and it was phenomenal.Except that would take money, and while I was rich in Rupees and Bells and Caps, the owners of the Hokey Pokey only accepted boring old dollars.

She's ready for player two.Based on the post of MsCherylTerra, in 3 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at My First Time.Player one is me, Ramona Roth. I'm nineteen, blue hair, pierce eyebrow, former president of the student council, virgin.War is hell, they say, but I say they're wrong.Hell is insanity, and insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.Hell is false hopes and flagrant disappointment.Hell is knowing that the squabbling of Ilyra, the princess from the far-off planet of Nianus, and Jostok, the snarky-but-pleasantly-ripped humanoid alien soldier from Quighnan, would attract the attention of Izzon's monstrous space beast.It's knowing that the beast would destroy the vent your plucky band of misfits was crawling through.It's knowing that you'd all tumble into the cavernous belly of the spaceship with only the last-second triggering of a force-field from your omni-cuff to prevent you from turning into gizzard soup on the space-grey floor.I watched Jostok realize that the force field hadn't prevented the princess from being crushed beneath the weight of the metal that tumbled from above. I watched him separate her from the tangled pile of bodies and bionic limbs, cradling her barely conscious form against one beefy, armor-clad bicep.I watched her brilliant violet eyes flutter open, and saw the little half-smile on her face as he called her by her name, and heard the weakness in her voice as she reminded him that it was Princess Ilyra to him. I heard Jostok chuckle wetly and assure her she was going to make it.After all, she was the princess. This was not how princesses died.Which was true, because she didn't die like that.Izzon's beast hurled itself to the ground in front of us, its weight making the spaceship itself shudder violently. A beam of light shot forth from its gaping maw, wrenching Ilyra from Jostok's arms. He reached for her, but before his bionic arm was even fully extended, the beast had pulled her into the air, clutched her between its massive claws, and snapped her in half like she was a fucking Kit Kat bar.So, she died like that instead.There was a beat; a pause as horror dawned across the party. A splash of blood splattered on the floor followed by the delicate circlet Ilyra always wore."No," breathed Jostok.A metallic cackle from above filled the room."So much for your princess," Izzon said as he descended on a floating platform.He landed just in front of the beast. Two long strides brought him to the circlet, and he plucked it from the pool of blood before making a mockery of Ilyra's memory and placing the fragile band of metal on his horned forehead."You killed her," Jostok said, his voice wavering."Well, duh," Izzon said, chuckling. "What, you think this is your fairytale or something, Quighnan? You kill the horrible, evil, sad little man who was just trying to get back what was rightfully his? You think you save the world, you get the girl, you get the glory?"His smile faded, and he straightened the circlet before reaching for his omni-cuff."Well, Quighnan, I have news for you. You failed. The world is mine, the girl is dead, and you; ""Shut up, you piece of Cul excrement!" Jostok roared."Or what?" Izzon taunted."Or this," I muttered.Surprise flashed across Izzon's face as Jostok smashed his omni-cuff, using the last of its power to create his trademark rocket launcher. Hefting it over his shoulder, he screamed as he fired it. Izzon's beast stepped forward, snatching its master from the ground seconds before the ball of certain death hit him, and it was time for me to take over.The battle was hell. It was a place I'd been a million times before, and I let the world around me fade as I focused on Izzon and Izzon alone. His beast didn't like that, of course, but the beast wasn't my concern. There were others to fight the beast; only I could fight Izzon.Sweat beaded on my forehead and dryness scratched at my eyes. I refused to look away, refused to be distracted for even a millisecond from my task. Izzon darted around the battlefield, firing laser after laser in my direction, but I knew how to dodge them. I knew how to use them against him; I knew how to lure the beast to just the right spot for Izzon to maim it himself.And I knew what would happen next.The world shook, a rumbling that vibrated through my bones. Izzon's platform shot up, and I tracked it, ignoring the shouts and cries of the battle raging around me. High above, I saw the flash of light, and I hurled myself out of the way moments before a ball of plasma crashed down and punched a hole through the entire ship.A rush of air sucked through the floor, and I clung to the strategically placed pole for dear life, still refusing to take my eyes off Izzon's platform. I waited, watched, my heart racing as he descended, and descended, and;"Now," I said through clenched teeth, and I jumped.Wind and suction twirled around me as I fought against the force with everything in me. It was a Hail Mary, a last-ditch effort, a moment of pure insanity as I mashed at the omni-cuff wildly. I mashed, and mashed, and mashed, and;I made it.I got to the platform."Oh my fuck," I breathed. "Oh fuck, oh frak, oh; fruck."I finally did it.Izzon stood before me, his wretched face twisted in anger. I pointed my weapon at him, just as I dreamed I would a thousand times before, and without so much as a second thought, I began to fire. One shot hit and his body jostled; another and red splattered around me; one more and;And all went dark.Sudden silence replaced the sounds of battle as blackness overtook me. For half a moment, I thought I had died, like for-real died. Then, my eyes adjusted, and across from me I saw the form of a woman with pale skin, wide eyes, and bright blue hair in the depths of a black mirror."No," I whispered.The woman mimicked me."No," I said again, a low groan as realization dawned on me.The woman's face crumpled. A bolt of lightning flashed through the basement window, and as thunder roared, I screamed."You've got to be frucking kidding me!" I shrieked, and I'm not at all ashamed to admit that I burst into tears."Ramona!" my mom shouted distantly.I ignored her cry; tears were streaming down my cheeks as frantic footsteps thudded on the stairs. Despondently, I slid off the couch and crumpled to the floor, clutching my controller to my chest as I sobbed."Ramona!" Mom gasped again, the faint glow of her cell phone flashlight spilling across the basement. "Are you hurt? Ramona, talk to me, w-what happened, are you; ""The power," I whimpered as she reached me and hesitantly touched my shoulder. "The power went out, and I was so close.""Close to; what?""Beating Izzon," I sniffed.Silent tension filled the basement."In a game," she said flatly."Well, yeah, but; ""You screamed bloody murder in the middle of a huge thunderstorm because the power went out during a game."It was no use trying to explain to her that I'd been stuck on the boss fight in The Circlet of Nianus for days. I stared sullenly across the basement at the darkened TV as Mom launched into another one of her ranting lectures that had become routine since I'd returned home for the summer after my first year of university."This is not proper behavior for a nineteen-year-old woman," she said, probably. I would've had to have been listening to know for sure, which I wasn't, but all her lectures were pretty much the same. "Christ, Ramona, it's like I don't even know who you are anymore. What happened to the sweet girl who left for university last August?"Then, if that lecture was anything like the other ones; which it likely was, but I still wasn't listening; she would have started tearing up."I don't know what I did to deserve you acting like this,   Ramona," she probably said in a watery voice. "What happened to my goody-two-shoes straight-laced brown-noser who would never dream of putting a toe out of line and who I, as the head of the Minwack Falls Homeowners Association, could truly be proud of since she was as cookie-cutter and put-together as the yards and fences I work so hard to keep in line at all times?"Well, she probably didn't say that last part. At least, not out loud. But the implication was there. When I tuned back in to the conversation, she was shaking her head as she looked dramatically in the other direction."Honestly,   Ramona, maybe we made a mistake," she was saying, for real that time. "Sending you to that school; I worried that you weren't ready and now; ""I was perfectly ready to go to university," I said dully. "And I'm an adult, so you didn't send me anywhere. I chose to go. And my name is Ramona.""Adults don't throw tantrums because of a silly game.""It's not silly," I said through gritted teeth. "This is what I want to do with my life.""Play games.""Make games.""Hmm," she said. "Be that as it may, I highly doubt you'll find a summer job making games. I charged the laptop battery up earlier today, so if the power stays out, we can still work on your resume tonight."I sighed. "I have a resume. I already asked if they were hiring at The Sword and Dice and they said they'd get back to me.""I doubt the comic book store is hiring," she said, unimpressed, before she started towards the stairs. "I'm surprised Jordan Cooper's managed to keep it open as long as he has. I'll go down to The Enchanted Florist tomorrow and speak with Owen. That girl he has working there was incredibly rude to me the other day and refused to call him so I could make a complaint about her.""Okay, Karen," I muttered under my breath.Mom turned. "What was that?""Nothing."She clearly didn't believe me and shot a very Karen-esque look in my direction. "Well, if he's willing to hire her, I bet he's one of the few people in town who would be willing to overlook your new; style and possibly offer you a job."And there it was; yet another dig at my hair, and my new eyebrow piercing, and the fact that I wasn't dressed like her President of the Student Council Princess anymore.I wish I could say it had been a gradual transformation, that I hadn't been the stereotypical example of the good-girl going wild as soon as she was on her own for the first time. However, years of living with Liz Roth, head of the Minwack Falls Homeowners Association, vice-president of the Minwack Falls High School Parent-Teacher Association, and volunteer board member for the Minwack Falls Good Neighbor Society, had instilled an almost-detrimental instinct to be honest in me.I was absolutely the model of a rebellious girl experiencing life away from an overbearing mother and semi-absent father.I'd left for university as a geeky girl with suitcases full of modest blouses and nice-but-not-too-tight jeans. At the end of the semester, I returned home with suitcases full of pop culture t-shirts, dark jeans that were ripped in all the right places, and Chuck Taylors that I'd kept on my feet day in and day out so I could get that worn-in look as fast as possible. I was still geeky and still a girl, but now that girl had bright blue hair, an eyebrow ring, and an exasperatedly cynical attitude.I loved who I had become. I loved being Ramona, the girl with wild hair and full of laughter. I loved geeking out with my friends over video games and sci-fi movies and superheroes. I loved being able to show people that girl instead of the girl I had to be under my mother's roof.Back home, though, that girl wasn't welcome. That girl was an embarrassment to the head of the H O A. Worse, I was in for another three full months of putting up with my mom's pressure to dye my hair back to a respectable color and stop wearing studded belts and ripped jeans."Teach you that your choices have consequences," Mom was saying, and I'd been so distracted I hadn't even bothered imagining what she might have said. "If The Enchanted Florist won't hire you, you'll need to get your hair fixed.""My hair isn't broken.""I'm not letting you sit down here playing video games all summer. You need to get a job.""Trust me, I'd like nothing more," I said. "I could use the break."Before Mom could respond; and trust me, her inner Karen was desperate to give me a piece of its mind; we were interrupted by the sound of the door opening above us. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly."Your father's home," she said unnecessarily. "Finish tidying up here and come set the table."I waited until she had started back up the basement stairs to let out the breath I'd been holding, leaning miserably against the couch as the darkness enveloped me again.It was going to be a long frucking summer.Summer Expectations.I was saved from having to work on my resume with my mom peering over my shoulder by her innate need to be involved in every disaster.Dinner was blissfully quiet. Dad didn't say much, as per usual, and Mom's constant chatter manifested as mumbled frustrations while she scrolled through the town Facebook page on her phone, the mushy broccoli and dry chicken on her plate abandoned as she took control of the situation via social media.As quickly as I could, I shoveled bite after bite of mediocre, overcooked blandness into my mouth. Like most of my classmates in first year, I'd gained the ubiquitous Freshman Fifteen, but I hadn't minded in the slightest. I'd been relatively thin most of my life, and putting on some weight had finally made me look less like a twelve-year-old boy and more like an actual, honest-to-God woman.Unfortunately, a full summer of my mom's cooking meant that I'd probably slim down to nothingness again unless I started stopping by the Hokey Pokey Ice Cream Parlor twice a day. Which wasn't a terrible idea, actually; their ice cream was all homemade and it was phenomenal.Except that would take money, and while I was rich in Rupees and Bells and Caps, the owners of the Hokey Pokey only accepted boring old dollars.

Riley, Taliyah and Dominique, oh my!Based on a post by FinalStand, in 13 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.Upstairs, at the same time.Pist; pist,' Taliyah hissed at Mikhail. ‘Wake up.'‘I'm awake,' he replied, though his eyes remained closed.‘I can't believe Vlad is cheating on Brandy.'‘Brandy keeps telling him that she's Darius' girl. How long is he supposed to hang around waiting for her to decide?' Mikhail questioned.‘I; I warned her; he had better not be fucking my Mother.'‘Do you want me to go find out?' he finally opened his eyes. Taliyah's head and shoulders were visible from his horizontal form as she looked from the bed. She was still dressed in her cheerleader's uniform.‘Don't be stupid,' she spat. ‘I'll go look.'‘Yeah; because that couldn't possibly turn out wrong,' he chided her.‘Damn it. Stop making sense. I prefer you being an insensitive jerk.'‘Default setting, gotchya,' he laughed softly. A few moment's passed.‘I can't hear anything,' Taliyah closed her eyes and strained her hearing. Mikhail rolled up into a sitting position then stood.‘I'll be right back.'‘I'm coming with you,' she slid off the bed as well. Mikhail took in the girl-becoming-a-woman before him. Taliyah Malik was taller than Brandy by a good three inches. Her skin was mocha with a dark birthmark under her right breast. Her eyes were dark, intelligent and sparkled when she was angry, as he could well attest.Her lips were full and very little acne scared her face. Her thick, kinky black hair was pulled back in a woven ponytail with beads on the last few inches. Her arms were firm and strong, as were her legs (she'd punched and kicked him with real force), her breasts were hemispherical and pert, with long thin nipples that poked through her clothes when she was aroused. Her stomach was soft to the touch, curvy yet tightly muscled beneath the surface. She was a true athlete.Her thighs and calves were muscular, as was her curvaceous ass which stuck out of its own accord and was sturdy to the touch. Mikhail knew. He'd played in depth with that ass just this afternoon; and loved it. Her full, rich lips were upturned in her normal sneer.‘Where did your clothes go?' she hissed. Mikhail was down to his boxers.‘I don't sleep in my clothes. It is uncomfortable. Besides, we've seen each other naked, so what's the big deal?' he countered.‘It will be a really big deal if Momma finds you like this, in my room.'‘I'll tell her you beat me up, took my clothes and made me sleep at the foot of your bed like a bad serf, or a good dog,' he chuckled. She smacked his chest.Together they went to her room door which had been left partially open when they fell asleep. Taliyah was still disappointed that she hadn't made more progress with the terribly annoying, yet definitely attractive youngest member of the Samsonov clan. He seemed immune to her status at school, or her mother's critical position in city government. He was the most exasperatingly independent man she'd ever met. She was also oddly drawn to his muscular frame, pale blonde hair and crystal blue eyes that reminded her of a raptor.Taliyah couldn't quite accept that she was also drawn to the man's brutality. There was a barely contained beast dwelling behind those crystal orbs; and she wanted to see more of it. She wanted to test it and she wanted to make that challenge because she sure that was exactly how he would see it, a one on one fight for dominance.She couldn't gain dominance in Darius' power structure. The whole cheer squad had been reduced to play toys for the football team. Being a girl meant she was a vagina and little more despite all her personal ambitions. Brandy barely cared, she was so far under Darius' spell. Mikhail was different though. She'd heard about how he treated Kaja; how Kaja was part of his team and was treated as if her ambitions mattered.It wasn't until the car ride home that Taliyah realized that Kaja hadn't hooked up with Mikhail yet. At first, she had thought Kaja was showing stunning wisdom for not dating one of the three most hated White boys in school. The hunting lodge had changed all that. He'd abused her, fought with her and taken control over her and she'd made him pay for every step; and it had been fun. He didn't belittle her efforts nor insinuate that his success was anything more than a temporary victory for either side.She'd verified that in the stables when she'd wailed on him good. Even his scary/crazy mother had thought Mikhail need a good thrashing. How he had ended up in her bedroom when the lights went out was still a mystery. Mikhail hadn't once looked at her funny, or tried anything. After their earlier tussle on the floor and the resulting make-out session, he'd rolled over and gone straight to bed. She'd heard Vlad come in, their whispered conversation and then they were alone.‘I'll go first,' he said.‘Why do you; ,' she got out before he interrupted.‘If I'm seen, I'll be dismissed. If you are seen, there could be a long explanation you don't want to hear,' he told her. ‘I go first.'This time she didn't fight him on the point.As they sneaked down the stairs, Taliyah could make out the noises were coming from the darkened kitchen. From the echoes, some serious screwing was going on.‘Red Wolf Bitch?' they heard Vlad taunt her followed by the sound of a hand slapping an ass hard.‘Yes-yes-yes,' she exhaled with glee. ‘I'm your bitch.'‘Bitch,' Taniyah whispered. ‘He's fucking Riley, that tramp.' She was relieved it wasn't her mother; it was the woman her dad had been cheating with now cheating with the man who was fucking Brandy silly; which was confusing.‘We can go back now,' Mikhail advised her. ‘Nothing to shock us, or make us want to stop them.'‘You like sex, don't you?' Vlad continued to tease her. He was also raining down more spanks. The sound of his cupped hand was a counterpoint to the sounds of her sweaty, meaty behind impacting his crotch.‘Love, love it,' Riley huff.‘What a slut,' Taliyah seethed. ‘I hope he fucks her so hard she can't go to work tomorrow. I hope it hurts.'‘Like it rough?' Vlad said.‘Of course she does, Bro,' Mikhail said quietly. ‘Listen to her howl.'‘Yes,' Riley exhaled.‘You were dressed to fuck Chine tonight, weren't you?' Vlad led her along.‘Yes; oh; no,' she gulped.‘Whore,' Taliyah hissed yet again.‘Did you fuck him today?'‘I bet she did,' Taliyah was getting steamed.‘No; No,' she howled.‘Lying cow,' Taliyah grumbled.‘Let's go back upstairs,' Mikhail gently tried to turn things around.‘I don't care,' Vlad chuckled. ‘I'm fucking you now. Come here,' I coaxed her along; out of sight of the two on the stairs.Reluctantly, Taliyah let herself be corralled and taken back to her room.‘Ga-ga-ga,' Riley choked. ‘God yes-yes-yes, give it to me.'Once inside, Taliyah began pacing angrily.‘He's fucking that sow,' she grumbled. ‘He's fucking her good and that shit belongs to Brandy, not that cheating whore.'‘He's fucking her so she won't be a BBC whore anymore,' Mikhail said casually. ‘In the same way Brandy isn't Darius's pet bitch, Vlad is going to rip Riley apart and fix what ails her on the sexual front. Trust me. That is how it will work out.'‘Trust you? You barely know anything about sex and women,' she blasted him.‘Mom was a far bigger slut than anyone in this burgh and she knows all the tricks, lies and deceptions; and she is confident that Vlad can get the job done.'‘She's crazier than you are and that's saying something,' she retorted.Mikhail went back to the blanket and pillow he had on the floor, making ready to go back to sleep.‘That's what you are going to do?' Taliyah sounded bitter.‘What I plan to do is shut you up, fuck you, curl your toes and make you scream out my name while I force you into climax after climax,' he said as he lowered himself to the pillow.‘I won't let you,' she snarled.‘'Letting' wasn't part of the program, remember? You'll do it because you want to put me in my place and you think you can.'‘Not likely,' she groused. ‘You are never having sex with me again.'‘That's okay. I'll have those precious memories to put me to sleep. The sweat pooling on your lower back, the muscles around your sphincter pulling back along my cock as I pulled out of you and then that sucking noise when I pushed back in. I owned your ass and that will never change.'‘Son of a bitch,' she snarled as she jumped on him. She was playing his game yet she was sure she could win it and shove her victory in his face. One of her knees hit the carpeted ground while the other drove painfully into his hip. Taliyah hauled back to slap his upraised left arm with her right. Her left hand landed on his right triceps, trying to keep him pinned down.'Smack', came the first blow. The second one, he caught by his wrist and held tight. She shifted to her left, only to have that one snatched too. Foolishly, Taliyah went for the head butt, learning rapidly Mikhail had a head as hard as stone.‘Ow,' she gasped. She was so distracted she missed him rising up and kissing her on the lips. He tried again, so she tried to bite him.Taliyah kept struggling, but couldn't stop Mikhail from rolling them over so that he was on top. He paid for that advantage as he felt her stabbing her manicured fingernails into his right hand.‘Hurr; ‘ he grumbled. He didn't let go, though. He tried to kiss her again and got a bitten lip for his troubles.‘Next time I'll bite off your tongue,' Taliyah promised. She was also keeping her voice low so that this fight would remain just between the two of them.‘I'm willing to test that promise,' he gave his best wolfish grin. Mikhail pressed his groin into hers. Taliyah had her legs around him, her ankles pressing into his ass. She was also dry humping his steel pole.‘Get the hell off of me,' she glowered.‘Make me,' he chuckled. Taliyah thrashed about, tried to bring his capturing hands within bite range and endeavored to buck him off with up thrusts of her hips, all to no avail. What she did accomplish was to get both of them very horny. Their quandary was Taliyah couldn't get him off of her and Mikhail couldn't further manipulate her unless he let go of an arm.He let go of her left arm. She immediately slapped him with it, but that allowed Mikhail to roll them back over to where the painful leverage caused her to let go of her leg-lock around his hips. Mikhail also had a free hand. He used it to land a resounding smack on her clad bottom. A slap-for-spank exchange erupted between the two with Taliyah getting more turned on by the second. She knew he was getting into it.She changed things up first, grabbing him by the chin.‘I am Not your bitch, Boy,' she taunted him. Mikhail's counter-ploy was to grab hold of one scrumptious ass cheek and give it a good squeeze.‘Yes you are,' he laughed.‘I'm on top,' she snarled.‘This gives me better access to your tits,' he kept chortling. ‘I'm enjoying the view.'‘I'm going to kill you,' she seethed. Her hand dropped from his chin to his throat as she tried to throttle him. Mikhail's throat muscles flexed, giving her poor purchases. Mikhail took the opportunity to move his hand between the two cheeks and probe her anus through her shorts and panties.‘No you don't,' she rumbled. ‘We are not doing that again,' but her insistence sounded a bit weak, even to her ears.‘What are you saying?' he grew serious. ‘That was the best sex I ever had.'‘I hope you enjoy the memories. That hurt and I'm; stop that,' she protested. Mikhail had moved his questing hand from outside the clothing to inside. He had a finger probing her sphincter in a flash.Taliyah's hand went back to his jaw.‘I said stop that,' she insisted at the same time she stopped trying to wiggle her ass away from the intrusion. Mik drew her higher up his body so that Taliyah's face was above his and her breasts were in his face. The real motive behind that action was revealed when he dipped his fingers further beneath her ass and penetrated her cunt with a finger.‘Oh, now you think you are going to get some of my cunt,' she sneered. ‘Ain't happening. You had your chance this afternoon.'‘Afraid you'll like it? Afraid you'll like it as much as you loved me forcing you this afternoon?' he teased her.‘Bitch; I'll make you my Bitch, Mik. I don't need your cock,' she countered.‘You know I like my Black Bitches quiet,' he snorted. ‘You talk; ‘ Taliyah pressed her lips down on his, shoved her tongue between his teeth and waged war with his tongue before pulling back.‘You talk too much,' she mocked him. Mikhail took his slick finger back to her puckered hole. This time he penetrated. Taliyah flinched, gasped then groaned.‘I hate you,' she panted.‘I'm not particularly fond of you either,' he grinned up at her.‘Liar,' she huffed. ‘You are getting off on my body. I know your brother does.'‘Vlad's got good taste in women,' he radiated masculine charm. ‘I think mine is better.'‘Damn right she is. This still doesn't mean I'm going to let you fuck me.'‘You had better step up your game if you plan to stop me,' he challenged her. Taliyah thrust down on his blood-filled tool and ground her vulva in. Mikhail could then switch up his hand so that his thumb was pressing into her bunghole and two fingers were pumping her twat. She was sticky-wet.‘Fuck you,' she growled. She let go of his jaw, supported her weight with her free arm and propped her midsection up. That forced her shorts and panties down since Mikhail wouldn't release his finger-holds in her nether regions. Mikhail, sensing the change in her stratagem, let go of her right hand. Taliyah smirked down at him at the same time she shimmied out of her clothing. Mikhail quickly shed his boxers.‘Right pants pocket, condoms,' he told her. Taliyah drew up short.‘When did you get them?'‘Vlad gave them to me,' he answered. ‘I guess he keeps a supply around in case Brandy gets frisky.' That was a carefully crafted lie. He knew they came from his mother. But telling Taliyah that would curtail his upcoming sexual romp.‘I'm on the pill.'‘Do you trust it?'‘Your sperms not that strong,' she countered.‘I'll have to give you a double; ‘ he got out.‘Shut up,' she taunted him. ‘You talk too much. I like my white boys doing something else with their tongues.'‘That's date three material,' he chuckled.‘I'm not going to give you the choice.'‘You talk too much. Less lip, more action.'She settled down on him, his cock pressed against his lower stomach while she wriggled over the base.‘I'm not sure I want to fuck you now,' her voice dripped with sarcasm. ‘I don't do White boys.' Mik shrugged. That flummoxed her, until he seized her lapse in caution to flip them back over, mounting her before she could push him off.‘Bastard,' she grumbled. He still wasn't inside of her because his hands were too busy keeping her hands pinned over her head. That didn't stop him from humping her. When he went in for a kiss, she decided to get fierce instead of resisting. She chewed on his lower lip, twisted and wrestled with his tongue against his palate. They exchanged a soulful kiss that caused her to shiver from neck to tailbone.Slowly, Taliyah's right leg worked its way up his left side until her knee passed her waist. She was now wide open and ready for some serious screwing. Mikhail released one of her hands and was promptly slapped. His hand went between them so he could line up his cock for penetration.‘I don't think so,' she teased him. ‘This isn't going to happen.'With that declaration, Mikhail's cockhead rubbed up against her labia, teasing it from hood to perineum.‘Not my ass, you bastard,' she glared.‘Fine, take off your shirt.'‘Why should I do; ah; anything for you?'‘Woman, is it going to kill you to show me your tits again?' he complained.‘What is the magic word?' she taunted him.‘You are a sexy bitch,' he rumbled.‘I was looking for 'please', but that will do,' she snorted. Mikhail let go of her other hand allowing Taliyah to take off her top and bra together.‘Damn, those are some sweet ta-tas,' he remarked.‘These?' she tantalized him by bringing her upper arms together, squeezing her bountiful mounds together and pushing them up.‘Yeah,' Mikhail studied them.‘Get to licking,' she demanded. Mikhail shot her a devilish look. He couldn't pump her and take in her boobies at the same time, so he had to slide down to take them both in. His suckling was ravenous, toothy and full of vigor. He not only lavished attention on her thick, dark brown nipples and areoles, he licked every inch of them, especially the bottom where she was salty with sweat.Quickly she was writhing beneath him. She released her breast augmentation to pull him in tighter by grabbing his ear and using it like a steering wheel. Her left hand went between them and began stroking his aching cock, giving it a brutal yank every time his teeth got too sharp against her tender flesh.‘Yeah; wo; yeah; nice. Rashaan won't do this for me,' she cooed.Mikhail took that insinuation of a comparison to smoothly transition his hand back to her flank, gripping and kneading her perfect, muscular buttock.‘Oh; ah; that's it; yes; this is; so wrong. I; hate you.'‘Hate, love, fucking is fucking, woman,' he answered. ‘You are sensual,' they maneuvered him into her molten, slippery folds, ‘and I'm hot for you. That's enough for me.'‘This isn't going; to become a; ah; habit,' she chuffed.‘I don't think so,' he rebounded. ‘I kind of like this and I'm faster than you.'‘Next time; oh yeah; I'll rip your nuts; ah; off,' she swore.‘I'll; ugh; take that under; (grunt); advisement,' he countered. ‘You feeling fucking awesome; I have to do this again.'‘No you won't,' she groaned. Mikhail began to delve deep into her depths, swiveling his crotch to make sure his cock rubbed as much of her vagina as possible. The more he fucked into her, the more Taliyah rebounded. She'd also finally shut up. She was having the best sex of her short life. None of the gang-bangs and private sessions with Rashaan could compare. She didn't know how to handle this.Slowly the looks Brandy gave Vlad made haunting sense. If Vlad could fuck as well as his brother; that would explain why she didn't want to give that White boy up. Taliyah feared she could get used to this. She already found Mikhail intriguing, strong, vicious and combative, fearless. He didn't give a fuck about what anyone thought. He wasn't even worried about what his brothers thought and did.She really liked that, him not giving a shit, living up to his own expectations and those alone. Even his scary/spooky crazy mother didn't hold him back. Mikhail's rod was caressing, massaging, loving every inch of her vaginal love box.‘You are being awful quiet,' he teased her.‘I thought you liked your Black bitches quiet, asshole,' she shot back.‘I want to hear you scream,' he laughed. Taliyah grabbed Mikhail's right shoulder and dug her fingernails in enough to cause him pain.‘How about you screaming, bastard?' she huffed. She was getting close and she took some of her erotic tension out on his flesh. ‘Fuck, fuck, fuck,' she covered her mouth and gave Mikhail the squirming and climax he wanted. He barely lasted seconds beyond her, his body tensing up as he drove into her harder and harder before his balls unleashed his torrents of cum.Four, five, six times he erupted. They lay coupled together, both struggling for breathe, sweaty and exhausted.‘Get off me,' she moaned. ‘You are heavy.'Mikhail snaked an arm underneath her then rolled over so that her weight was now on him.‘Oh, you think you are being clever,' she griped. ‘I still hate you.'‘I didn't fuck you to win you over. I fucked you because you are a cock-tease that I had to have. I could care less about your attitude,' he zinged. She hit him on the chest. He laughed, so she hit him again. Finally Taliyah propped herself up, her elbows on his pectorals and her chin supported by her linked hands.‘Are you ever not a jerk?'‘I aim for consistency,' he chuckled.‘I don't know how I'm going to put up with you,' she mused.‘I imagine you will be constantly kicking my ass when I piss you off. That works for my brothers,' he told her.‘Are you one of those masochist, a freaky jerk?'‘Not particularly. If you weren't so damn hot, I'd have dumped you by now.'‘You are an infuriating ass,' she sizzled. ‘Am I just a fuck toy for you?'‘I'm in your room in the middle of the night with your mother just down the hall; yeah; I'm so hard up for a screw that I'm putting up with all this fucked up shit,' he remarked.‘A simple 'no' would suffice,' she leaned in until they were nose to nose. Mikhail tilted his head slightly so he could lick her nose.‘Eew; now I have your slimy spit on my nose,' she complained.‘You have another form of my bodily fluids in your cunt, Taliyah,' he pointed out.‘You are about as romantic as a spittoon. Vlad gives a crap about Brandy. Why can't you give a damn about me?'‘Taliyah,' Mik hesitated. ‘I'm sleeping on your God-damn floor. We are having sex on your God-damn floor and not your far more comfortable bed. If you are expecting sappy words, you are fucking the wrong Samsonov. You should have picked Alexander. He'd treat you like a lady.'‘I would have, but he left,' she lied. Alexander did nothing to engage her spirit and Mikhail resonated with her soul. Mikhail shrugged, rolled onto his side and let his cock slip out of her sex sleeve. She could feel some of his seed leaking out so she moved up, grabbed a Kleenex and cleaned herself off. She even took the precaution of hiding it beneath some other trash. There was no sense in having a fight with her Mother over her raping Mikhail on her bedroom floor.She gathered up her panties and bra, putting them on while sitting on the edge of her bed. Mikhail took the break to retrieve his boxers. She wanted to lie down and try to order her thoughts about her Father, and Rashaan, and bitterly, about Mikhail. Mikhail took her by the hand and pulled her to his kneeling form.‘Lay down with me a bit,' he demanded. She wanted to resist, except she was both physically and mentally tired.Taliyah settled in by Mikhail's side. She rested in the crux of his arm, her head using his shoulder as a pillow. As sleep took her, she worried about what her Mother would say when she found them this way. She nodded off deciding she didn't care. Brandy had stolen her bit of happiness so why couldn't she seize some of her own?Dominique leaned her back against the wall next to Taliyah's door, controlling her own breathing and recalling much of what had passed between her daughter and her enemy/lover. Woken up by the same erotic noises made by that slut, Riley, fucking that Samsonov boy, Dominique had stepped out into the hall just in time to see Taliyah leading Mikhail back into her room.She had listened to most of their exchange, twice coming to the verge of storming in, acting offended and throwing Mikhail out on his ear. Both times, Taliyah's feisty retorts caused her to pull up short and silently urge her daughter on, to dominate the son of Gayle Fonteneau and make him perform. Instead, she and Mikhail had given as good as they each got, coupled like they belonged together and matched each other sexually.Now her daughter was cuddling on the floor with the son of her family's nemesis, softly snoring her way to post-coital bliss. Dominique was wet between the thighs and had an itch she couldn't scratch. Had she not been so furious with Chinedu, she would have called him. Instead, she was alone; and then the noise from downstairs picked up again.{Riley's Ass and Dominque's Pleasure}I had been working over Riley's labia and clitoris while she attempted to eat her plateful of ribs. She was huffing and puffing as she ripped through the last three.‘Let's go to the sofa,' I said then licked her fingers clean.‘I suppose it wouldn't hurt to do it one more time, as long as Dominique doesn't find out.'I led her to the sofa. She was expecting to recline on the furniture while I had other plans.I pushed her behind so that she fell over the arm rest. Riley giggled.‘You like my ass?'‘There is a lot of you to like and I have something special in mind,' I informed her. I knelt behind her, ran two fingers up her inner thigh and delved back into her sloppy cunt. I began kissing each ass cheek, working my way into her crack. With my left hand still working over her vaginal canal, I opened up her buttock with my right.Running my tongue from her sweet secretions to her anus brought forth wanton moaning and hip gyrations. I went back and forth for several minutes until I sensed her on the cusp. I rapidly pumped my fingers into her cunt, pressing up with all my dexterity while driving my tongue into her rectum. She jumped, groaned loudly then flopped back down on the sofa.‘Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh,' she labored on and on until her teeth clenched and she began grunting loudly. Her eruption caused her whole plump body to vibrate and quiver. I punctuated her latest outburst with a resounded pop to the ass. That spurred her on to greater vocalizations. I had her going for over a minute until she lay utterly helpless to my predations.I went back to her sphincter, drilling in one finger slowly to the second knuckle. When that became less constrained, I worked in a second. When I went for the third, she mumbled something I couldn't make out.‘What was that?' I inquired.‘I don't do anal,' she pleaded.‘Chinedu already told Dominique and me that he did; and you liked it,' I deceived her.‘He did?' she hesitated then, ‘Oh, okay,' and she submitted to my advances. I had to wonder why she lied to me. Did she not like it, or had she thought I would think less of her because of it? I worked her over with my three fingers until her anus relaxed. Next, I took it easy with my cock, tested her physical frontiers with my cock and her emotional waters with my efforts.‘Hmm,' I rumbled as I worked my full length in at a steady pace. As I pulled out, I saw Dominique looking at us from the foyer. She must have just come down the stairs. I drove my cock back into Riley's ass while keeping eye contact with Dominique. I was kind of curious why she wasn't ripping us both a new asshole.‘You want this cock, don't you?' I asked.‘Yes,' she gasped. ‘Yes; I'm a slut,' she sobbed.‘Hey, at least you are honest,' I allowed. ‘And you are good at it too.'‘Oh; umm; thank you,' she hiccupped.‘You're welcome,' I pounded her ass for a minute, silent except for Riley's gasps, grunts and moans. It was positively glove-like by this time and every thrust drove her farther into her own sensual euphoria. Hey, she really liked cock.‘So, what do you think of Dominique?' I surprised them both.‘I, huh, what?' she tried to order her thoughts.‘Is she a good boss?'‘Ya, yes,' she panted.‘You find her sexy, don't you?' I tossed out there. This was one of the lessons I was supposed to use on Brandy, except the recipient of the sexy was Taliyah.‘I; a little; ‘ she huffed. She was getting close so I slowed my pace.‘Have you ever brushed up against her ass, touched it?'‘Once; well, a few times.'‘Nice,' I stroked her tramp stamp. ‘I bet is it luscious and warm to the touch. I bet she knows you do it, too.'‘Really?' she gulped.‘Oh yeah,' I looked Dominique's way. ‘She's got to be a sexual volcano. I bet she's got great, silky thighs too. I bet you'd like touching them.'‘May, maybe; ‘‘I'd go down on her if I had half a chance, if she didn't despise me,' I led her on. ‘I bet she tastes like molasses.'‘I don't know. I guess so; I've done girls before; I kind of liked it,' she murmured.‘Good for you,' I gave her a light spank. ‘If you had to go down on Dominique to keep your job; and if you promised to nut Chinedu the next time he propositioned you, would you?'‘You mean eat her out?' Riley looked over her shoulder. I gave her three quick pummelings to get her back on track.‘Yeah, tongues and fingers, really tear her up, to keep your job?'‘Yes, yes,' she moaned.‘Yes, you'll fuck her, or yes, pound your asshole harder?' I teased her.‘Both!' she hissed loudly. ‘Tear me up!'‘Wish granted,' I murmured

An der neier Folg vu Am Bistro mat der woxx schwätzt Joël Adami iwwer Eewäik-Chemikalien an eisen Gewässeren. Hien erklärt, wat dës Chemikalien sinn, wéi se an d’Ëmwelt kommen a wéi eng Geforen se fir Mënsch a Natur duerstellen. Hien beliicht och déi onvollstänneg Donnéeën an d’Gesetzeslag an Europa a gitt en Abléck an déi aktuell Situatioun zu Lëtzebuerg. Den Artikel, iwwert deen mir geschwat hunn: EwigkeitschemikalienThe post Ewigkeitschemikalien first appeared on Radio ARA.

Martijn van den Ende, Université Côte d'Azur Already for several years it has been suggested that Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) could be a convenient, low-cost solution for Earthquake Early Warning (EEW). Several studies have investigated the potential of DAS in this context, and demonstrated their methods using small local earthquakes. Unfortunately, DAS has a finite dynamic range that is easily exceeded in the near-field of large earthquakes, which severely hampers any EEW efforts. In this talk, I will present a detailed analysis of the dynamic range, and how it impacts EEW: where does it come from? What can we do when the dynamic range is exceeded? And is there still hope for DAS-based EEW systems?

This week Allen, Phil, and Joel discuss Ramboll's acquisiton of K2 Management, Sumitomo Corporation's acquired stake in EEW Offshore Wind Holding, and Aurora Energy Services acqusition of Altitech Blade Services. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: I'm Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech. And I'm here with the founder and CEO of IntelStor, Phil Totaro and the chief commercial officer of WeatherGuard, Joel Saxum. And this is your News Flash. News Flash is brought to you by our friends at IntelStor. If you want market intelligence that generates revenue, then book a demonstration of IntelStor at IntelStor. com. Danish engineering firm Ramboll has acquired K2 Management, a wind and solar energy consultancy. This move expands Rambl's global wind division to over 900 people across 20 countries, including a new presence in Vietnam, Thailand, and Portugal. The acquisition is part of Rambl's strategy to grow its wind business to over 1, 000 people by 2025, enhancing its ability to provide services across all stages of wind energy projects globally. Now, Phil. Why the push to get into places like Vietnam and Thailand and Portugal at the minute? Philip Totaro: Well, it's interesting because they're, K2 has done a really good job over the years of doing a lot of owners engineering services and other consultancy services around project development, particularly in these kind of emerging markets. So, you And Ramble historically has gotten a lot of feed contracts doing, some of the EPC basically scope of work and, and design work on Offshore sites the fact that they would fold K2 management's capabilities in with what they already have is, is going to provide the combined company the opportunity to get a wider scope of work from a lot of these, particularly a lot of these emerging markets where. In an emerging market, you want to turn key service provider. This gets them one step closer to, to doing that. Joel Saxum: Yeah, this, to me, this is a huge acquisition in the space. If you're in the offshore wind space or in the wind space in general, and we're just talking wind, not solar and everything else that both of these companies do two big players, you're joining up. So it, like Phil said, you're going to have a full suite of capabilities in a lot of parts of the world, because there's parts where K2 operates where Rambo doesn't, or where K2 has made inroads and Rambo hasn't. Allen Hall: In Germany, EEW Group has reorganized its business into three holding companies. Japanese firm Sumitomo Corporation has acquired a stake in one of these, EEW Offshore Wind Holding. This holding company focuses on the monopile business and associated mechanical engineering activities. This partnership aims to secure EEW's position as a global market leader in offshore wind foundations. And Phil, there's a lot of work happening in foundations at the minute and a lot of movement in the business world about that. Philip Totaro: Yeah, and, and for Sumitomo's benefit they have a lot of contracts to do, both foundations and to partner with other companies to do topsides on offshore substations in particular. So, like we just talked about with with Ramboll and K2 getting together. And having kind of complementary capabilities. This is a similar thing where Sumitomo obviously already has some presence in, in monopile fabrication, but EEW is without a doubt the,

Amy Williamson, University of California Berkeley Alerts sent through earthquake early warning (EEW) programs provide precious seconds for those alerted to take simple protective actions to mitigate their seismic risk. Programs like ShakeAlert have been providing alerts for felt earthquakes across the west coast of the US for almost 5 years. Earthquakes are also one part of a multihazard system and can trigger secondary natural hazards such as tsunamis and landslides. However in order to be effective and timely, EEW and tsunami forecast algorithms must rely on the smallest amount of data available, often with variable quality and without analyst input. This talk focuses on potential advances to EEW algorithms to better constrain earthquake location and magnitude in real time, providing improved alerts, particularly in network sparse regions. Additionally, this talk highlights work using real time data to generate rapid tsunami early warning forecasts, its feasibility, and the benefit of unifying earthquake and tsunami alerts into one cohesive public-facing alerting structure.

A Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 & St. Luke 18:9-14 by William Klock “Two men went up to the temple to pray,” Jesus said.  The temple was the place where heaven and earth met.  The place where men and women could go to be in the presence of God.  Twice a day the priests would lead the people in prayers, at nine in the morning and at three in the afternoon, but people could go any time to pray and they did.  They still do.  Jews today gather at the Western Wall, not technically the temple, but part of the foundation of the temple complex and all that was left after the Romans brought it all crashing down.  Jews still go there to pray.  Two men climbed the steps to the temple courts to pray.  “One of them,” Jesus said, “was a Pharisee.”  It was perfectly fine to pray at home, but if anyone was going to go and pray at the temple, it would be a Pharisee.  Their “thing” was to live their lives as if they served in the temple.  They weren't Levites and they weren't priests, but they took great pains to always remain ritually pure like the Levites did.  They would have been some of the most regular men to say their prayers in the temple instead of just at home. But there were two men, Jesus said, who went up to the temple.  “The other was a tax collector.”  You could almost hear the boos and the hisses and “Eew, gross!”.  Tax collectors didn't belong in the temple.  Jews had a whole category for people who had forsaken God's law.  They called them “sinners”.  These weren't people who slipped up and did bad things occasionally.  Everyone did that—even the Pharisees—but they still loved God, they still loved his covenant and his law, and the law made provision for atonement and they availed themselves of it.  “Sinners”, on the other hand, they were people who had no regard for God's law.  If they sinned, they didn't care and they didn't seek atonement.  They were Jews—ethnically speaking, at least—but they basically rejected or, at least, had no respect for the covenant.  But in those days there was one special class of “sinner” that was singled out because of just how awful they were: tax collectors.  So people would talk about “sinners and tax collectors”.  Tax collectors didn't just sin—they got rich stealing from and swindling their own people.  They were collaborators with the evil, unclean Romans. So Jesus went on with his story: “Standing, the Pharisee prayed to himself like this, ‘God, I give thanks to you that I am not like other men—like the greedy, like the unjust, like adulterers—or like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week.  I give a tenth of everything I earn.”  Everyone pictured the Pharisee, confidently making his way up the steps to the temple complex, confidently walking across the outer court—the place they called the Court of the Gentiles, because that's as close to the temple as the Gentiles could go.  And they pictured him confidently passing through the gate into the Court of the Women and then, still confidently, striding across that outer court and into the inner Court of Israel—the place where the great altar was, where the priests offered their sacrifices.  And he boldly went and stood at the base of the steps leading up into the temple itself and he lifted up his hands and he prayed.  And it was normal to pray out loud in those days, but he made a point of raising his voice so that everyone could hear his prayer, and he thanked the God of Israel that he was not like other men.  His prayer of thanksgiving becomes a thinly veiled boast of his own faithfulness to God's law—especially as he turns his head and looks back to the tax collector who just barley dared to pass through the gate and was practically hiding behind a column. In stark contrast, “The tax collector,” Jesus said, “standing far off, didn't even want to lift his eyes to heaven.  Instead, he beat his breast, saying ‘God, have mercy on me a sinner.'” While the Pharisee strode proudly into the temple, the poor tax collector kneels—or maybe he even prostrates himself on the ground—off on the fringes, hiding in the shadows or behind a column and quietly utters his humble prayer for mercy.  The Pharisee—at least as far as he was concerned—he belonged there.  But the tax collector.  He was a sinner and he knew it.  He did not belong in the presence of the holy.  Other people made that clear and he probably believed it himself.  But he was desperate for God's mercy and this was the place to ask for it.  What happened to the tax collector that brought him to the temple?  Jesus doesn't say. For all we know, Jesus could be telling Matthew's story here.  Maybe he was one of those people to whom Jesus had pronounced, “Your sins are forgiven.  Go and sin no more.”  And so he followed it up the only way he knew how, by turning over a new leaf, by ritually purifying himself, and by going to the temple to fall on the mercy of the Lord. “This one—the tax collector,” said Jesus, “he went down to his house justified, not the other one.”  Why?  “Because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Now, there's an interesting twist in the tale.  If you were following along in Luke 18 or if you were paying careful attention when the Gospel was read earlier, you might have noticed that I left out Luke's introduction.  At the beginning, Luke introduces the parable, writing, “Jesus told this parable to some who were confident in themselves, because they were righteous and looked down on others.”  In Greek, “righteous” and “just” are the same word, so Luke plays with that here.  Jesus told this parable to some who were confident in themselves, because they were righteous (or just).  The point is that they knew—they were certain they were “in”.  Whenever the Lord came to judge the wicked and to deliver his people and to set the world to rights, they knew they'd be on God's side.  They knew they had a place in his presence in the age to come.  But then in the end, who is it who goes home justified or in the right?  It's not the righteous Pharisee, but the tax collector who prayed for God's mercy. It's not that the Pharisee—whether the one in the parable or the ones Jesus was telling the parable to—it's not that they weren't righteous.  By all accounts they were.  They were obedient to the law.  They weren't perfect, but if they made a mistake, they offered the appropriate sacrifices.  That was part of being faithful to the law, too.  They took part in the atonement for sins offered through the temple.  They were righteous.  And they were the opposite of the tax collector.  The tax collector had no regard for God, for his law, or for his covenant.  The Pharisee loved God's law; the tax collector trampled all over it.  And I think it's important to add that it wasn't just the Pharisees.  When Luke says that Jesus told this to people who were confident in themselves because they were righteous, that included most of the people.  The Pharisees may have set the bar higher than it needed to be, but the majority, most people who say themselves as good and upstanding Jews had this same problem.  They were confident of their position before the Lord because they knew they kept his law: they were circumcised, they kept the sabbath, they ate only clean food, and they avoided gentiles. And yet, at the end of the story, Jesus says, it's not the righteous or the just man who goes away justified—meaning declared by God to be in the right.  It's the scummy, unrighteous tax collector.  Why?  Well, to answer that we need to ask what Jesus meant that he went home justified.  To be justified is to be found or to be declared to be “in the right”. Think of a courtroom.  Plaintiff and a defendant bring their case before a judge, they explain the circumstances and present their evidence, and the judge makes a ruling.  The judge declares one of them to be in the right.  The judge vindicates one of them.  Maybe it's the defendant, who proves his innocence to the judge.  Or maybe it's the plaintiff, who proves to the judge that he is truly the victim.  One of them goes home vindicated by the judge.  He goes home declared to be in the right.  He goes home justified.  But what's the judge's basis for determining who is in the right? We really have to do is go back to the Old Testament and to the beginning of Israel's story.  Think about Abraham in Genesis 15.  That's where this got started.  The Lord made a promise to Abraham—to give him a land and to give him a son and to make him a great nation.  And it was absurd.  Abraham went to the promised land and lived there—but he was just one man and even as rich as he was, with flocks and herds and servants, he only ever occupied the smallest corner of that land.  And there he was, almost one hundred and his wife ninety—long past child-bearing years.  How could he, a childless man ever become a great nation?  But the Lord made a promise to him and Abraham believed.  And, we're told, the Lord counted that belief, that faith, as righteousness.  Because Abraham believed that the Lord not only could, but somehow would pull off this crazy promise, he was counted as being in the right.  There was no way any of it could happen, but Abraham trusted in the faithfulness of the Lord anyway.  And in that, Abraham set the standard by which the Lord recognised his people: faith.  Later the torah would mark out this people of faith as a special people, visibly different from everyone else, but long before the torah there was faith, and faith was ultimately what it always was and always would be that marks out the people of God—faith in the God who promises crazy things and then never fails to do them. And this theme echoes all the way through Israel's story.  It was the message of the Prophet Habakkuk who lived during the last decades of the kingdom of Judah, in the years before Jerusalem was defeated and destroyed by the Babylonians and the people taken off into exile.  Habakkuk looked around him and saw the wickedness and idolatry of his own people and, very much like the psalmists, he cried out to the Lord.  This is the opening of his lament. O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,          and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!”          and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity,          and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me;          strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed,          and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous;          so justice goes forth perverted. (Habakkuk 1:1-4) Habakkuk knew that things weren't the way they were supposed to be and he knew the promises of the Lord to his people and he and so many others had cried out and cried out—for centuries—and things only got worse.  Wickedness and idolatry multiplied and from their perspective it seemed like the Lord wasn't listening and that he was refusing to act.  Judah's situation seemed as hopeless to Habakkuk as Abraham's situation must have once seemed to him.  But that was just it.  Habakkuk knew that the Lord is faithful and so he continued to cry out.  He trusted the Lord.  He had faith, that one characteristic that defines the people of God above all else. But then the Lord responds.  He tells Habakkuk that he has seen the state of his people and that he is going to visit them, but that he will be dealing with their problem by sending the Babylonians to defeat them.  That wasn't what Habakkuk wanted to hear.  He argues with the Lord.  The Babylonians are even more wicked and idolatrous than the people of Judah.  How can defeat by them possibly be the Lord's solution?  And the Lord responds and assures Habakkuk that while Babylon may be his instrument of justice against Judah, Babylon herself—and all the nations—will be held accountable and will one day be judged.  The cycle of violence will be broken and everything will be set to rights.  One day, he says, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.  It's another one of those impossible promises—maybe even more impossible than the promise he made to Abraham.  But what do the Lord's people do in the meantime? Here's the Lord's answer—and Jesus' parable points us right back to these words.  The Lord says to Habakkuk in 2:4: Look at the proud!          His spirit is presumptuous and is not right But the righteous shall live by faith.   The world is falling apart.  Everything is wrong.  The wicked prosper and are proud and presume on the Lord's faithfulness and the righteous are oppressed.  By all human appearances it doesn't sound like the Lord is even listening.  But those who continue to live by faith in the midst of tribulation, those who remember the Lord's promises in the midst of persecution, those who steep themselves in the story of the Lord and his people and remember his faithfulness, those who continue to trust in him, they are the ones who will be vindicated by the Lord when he does come in judgement on the wicked.  They are the ones who will remain faithful to the Lord and to his covenant, even when all the proud people around them do evil and bow to idols, they will remain faithful, because they know and because they trust that the Lord is always faithful.  I hope that's an encouraging word for you already, but first we need to go back to Jesus' story about the two men in the temple. There's the proud Pharisee.  By the standard of the law, he is in the right.  And there's the scummy tax collector.  By the standard of the law, he's in the wrong.  And yet in the end, it's the tax collector who goes home and is found to be in the right.  If this were one of Jesus' “kingdom stories” it would be the tax collector who is welcomed into the kingdom, while the Pharisee is left in the outer darkness, weeping and gnashing his teeth.  The tax collector would escape the coming judgement and know the life of the kingdom, while the coming judgement would fall on the Pharisee right along with all the other wicked in Israel.  Why?  Because below, underlying the law—it's foundation—was faith in the Lord.  A faith that humbly trusted in his promises.  A faith that humbly trusted in his grace.  A faith in the sufficiency of the Lord, instead of the sufficiency of self.  A faith that would rejoice in the presence of the Messiah and a faith that rejoice over the repentance of sinners. Over and over Jesus was clear.  He came not to the righteous, but to seek out the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  At least in theory, the righteous were fine.  They should have been expecting this all along.  They were the ones who knew the scriptures so well, after all.  But, ironically, they got angry when Jesus went to the lost sheep.  And so Jesus told them stories to explain the joy in heaven over sinners who repent.  The Lord is like the widow who seeks and eventually finds her lost coin.  He's like the shepherd who goes to great lengths to find his lost sheep.  He's like the father, rejoicing and throwing a party when his prodigal son returns home.  But so many in Israel were like the proud and resentful older brother.  They'd been doing the right thing all along.  Why wasn't Jesus throwing a party for them?  And so, in their pride, they refused to enter the house and were left out in the darkness gnashing their teeth.  And it would be like that, only much, much worse when judgement came.  Because the law was not enough.  Because in Jesus, the Lord was doing something new.  In Jesus he was fulfilling his promises.  In Jesus he was making a new people who would be finally and truly fit for the kingdom, a people forgiven once and for all and a people filled with God's own Spirit, a people with his law of love written on their hearts—a people fit for God's new creation.  When Jesus told people they needed a righteousness greater than the Pharisees if they wanted to take part in the kingdom, that's what he was getting at.  The Lord was finally giving something better than the law written on stone tablets.  He was about to make a people with his law of love written on their hearts.  But that people was centred in Jesus.  So only those who trusted in this Messiah—this Messiah who was so different from their expectations—only those humble enough to recognise the new thing the Lord was doing in Jesus and to live by faith, trusting that Jesus really is the Lord's answer to all the problems of the world, only they will go home justified.  Only they will be able to be part of the kingdom—forgiven and filled with the Spirit, because of their faith in Jesus. This is what St. Paul is getting at in our Epistle from 1 Corinthians 15.  He declares once again the good news about Jesus the Messiah who died and was buried and who rose again according to the scriptures.  And he talks about the twelve who saw him and believed and about the five hundred who saw him and believed.  And then there was Paul.  He heard the message, but he was one of those proud Pharisees, confident that he already had the right answers, confident that he knew how the Lord was going to deliver his people—and, most of all, confident that it wasn't through Jesus.  The gospel was blasphemy as far as he was concerned.  And so, he writes, he persecuted the church.  And yet there's hope.  Paul was stuck.  He had a mountain of faith, but it wasn't in Jesus.  The torah had been preparing Israel for Jesus all those centuries, but Paul and so many others just couldn't see it, couldn't make the leap.  But even as he persecuted the church, the Lord was at work to transform Paul.  “But by the grace of God I am what I am,” he writes, “and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” Brothers and Sisters, there's that righteousness greater than that of the Pharisees.  There's the faith that humbles the proud and brings even the greatest sinner into the kingdom.  Not because the faith is so great, but because it's in Jesus the Messiah.  It's a faith that brings forgiveness and the life of the Spirit.  Habakkuk wrote that the just shall live by faith and that's precisely what Jesus' people do.  He gives us the very life of God, because we trust in him.  And that life he gives—the law of love written on our hearts, the experience of God's love and faithfulness revealed so dramatically in our Saviour—that life fills our hearts with a faith that overflows.  And that, Brothers and Sisters, is how we live in this in-between time.  It's how those first Christians lived through the devastation of Jerusalem's destruction.  It's how the next generation lived through Rome's persecution.  It's how the saints lived, even as they were thrown to the lions.  It's how the saints still live in many parts of the world, imprisoned because they live by faith, tortured because they live by faith, martyred because they live by faith.  And it's how the saints have lived in the midst of a world that still isn't right, that still anticipates the final consummation of the Lord's new creation.  We live by faith as we struggle in our work..  We live by faith as we struggle with illness or frailty or cancer.  We live by faith as we struggle to bring justice and mercy to a world that is so unmerciful and lacking in justice.  We live by faith as we face droughts and floods and forest fires.  We live by faith in the midst of difficult and broken relationships.  And we live by faith as we live out our calling to proclaim the good news about Jesus in a world that thinks us fools; faithful to our calling to holiness in a world filled with idolatry and sin.  It's how we live in hope, like Habakkuk, like the Apostles, like they martyrs, looking past this broken world and the evils of our time, and knowing that the Lord is faithful to his promises, that he will set this world to rights, and that in Jesus, he will surely finish what he has begun—we know he will, because he always has. Let's pray: Lord God, you declare your almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity: mercifully grant to us such a measure of your grace, that we, running the way of your commandments, may receive your gracious promises, and be made partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

I Become A Dad!by Sénor Longo. Listen to the  ► Podcast at Connected.I drove south until I was able to get onto I-78, following that through Jersey City to the New Jersey Turnpike. We moved along at a steady pace and fairly quickly due no small degree to the E-Z Pass I'd kept after moving from New York to North Carolina. We didn't have to stop to get a ticket or to pay at the southern terminus of the Turnpike, nor did we have to stop in the long lines at either the Delaware Memorial Bridge or at one of the toll booths on I-95 in Delaware.Our first stop was about two hours after leaving, around 11:20, at the last rest stop on the Turnpike. I needed to put Lady out for a walk and Jenny and I needed a bathroom break, too. By now we had our routine down pat. Jenny walked into the restroom while I took Lady onto the lawn. I had already poured water into her bowl on the sidewalk when Jenny reappeared with unwanted attention from a guy who looked to be in his late thirties. Twice I saw Jenny try to walk away from him and twice he grabbed her arm to stop her. Bad move; Lady also saw him. I let go of her leash and she was bounding down the walkway less than a second later.Lady stopped when she reached Jenny, but even 100 feet away I could see her anger at his touching her mistress. The hair on the back of her neck was up and I could see other travelers back away cautiously. Jenny calmly took Lady's leash and it was clear to all that Lady was only a second away from taking down Jenny's admirer. She was in attack mode; rear legs bent and ready to spring, fangs bared; a low guttural growl coming from her throat. Only her rigid discipline and training saved that man's life. I could see Jenny explaining that to the man as she turned away, leading Lady back to me.“Thanks, darling; he was making a real ass of himself. He stopped me on my way in and ignored my telling him that I was a very happily married woman. I couldn't believe that he was still there when I walked out of the ladies' room. What on earth did he possibly think; that I'd jump into a car with a total stranger for a quickie? Eew! Thank you, too, Lady,” she said as she ruffled Lady's ears.I left to use the facilities, and on the way some guy told me that I had a dangerous dog. “Yes and no,” I replied. “She's a danger to anyone who tries to hurt either my wife or me, but she's extremely well trained. That man was a fool, but he was in no real danger unless he put his hand on my wife again. Neither my dog nor I would have accepted that a third time.” I turned away to enter the building. We stopped for gas before continuing. Gas prices in New Jersey are relatively low and there's always an attendant to man the pump and wash your windshield. Jersey was the only place I knew of where that was the norm. We stopped again around one that afternoon for a quick lunch and again around four before stopping for the night around 6:30. For the first time since getting Lady I had trouble with the motel's registration. The clerk absolutely refused to allow us to register with Lady. “Have you ever heard of the ADA; the Americans with Disabilities Act,” I asked. “That's why you have ramps and bathrooms that are handicapped accessible. Part of the federal law covers service dogs like Lady or dogs for the blind. You'd better check with your manager or owner. I'd hate to have to sue you for being turned away.”He did phone the owner and from the little I heard he wasn't too happy about what he was told. He tried repeatedly to argue his point, but apparently got nowhere.Eventually, he hung up the phone and reluctantly told us, “I've been advised to apologize and offer the room on the house.” Instead, Jenny and I said, “No thanks,” turned away and walked out. We stayed instead at a Best Western just down the road. Not a word was said about our service dog.This trip would normally take about ten hours. With Lady, I figured about twelve because of all the extra stops we had to make. That was why Jenny and I had driven almost eight hours that first day. We wanted to get home by noon so we could hit the supermarket. Other than the occasional can and a jar of peanut butter, there was nothing much in the house to eat.That's almost exactly what happened. We turned into the driveway at 11:43, remembering just in time to press the remote for the gate. I doubted that either of us was as happy as Lady. She ran around the back yard and in and out of the garage aimlessly until Jenny and I had removed everything from the SUV. I had to admit that the BMW was a good investment. It rode well and got great gas mileage, even if it needed premium fuel. Jenny told me that both her car and mine were twin-turbocharged, whatever the hell that means. I know a lot about computers, but almost nothing about cars.We shopped most of the afternoon, spending hundreds to fill our refrigerator and pantry. Once we were done Jenny insisted we go to the range. I threw the clubs into my trunk and Lady climbed into the rear seat. The first time we'd taken her she raced out onto the range the instant I hit, thinking apparently that this was a game; some kind of fetch. Today she simply sat by our clubs watching and protecting us from the occasional vicious squirrel.That night after grilling a thick steak that we ate with a salad I retreated to my study. There was something I needed to check on. I had a program that, when opened, showed a screen of text; not words or sentences, but line after line of random letters and symbols. When a certain password is entered the text dissolves leaving a series of email addresses and their corresponding passwords. Why go through all of this, you ask? Because as I mentioned earlier I've had some shady clients; clients on the wrong side of the law; and I can't afford to be caught communicating with them. Once you go online you should always assume that everything you do is public and subject to scrutiny from the government or anyone else who might be interested.Sitting at my keyboard I accessed my home page on the internet. From there I typed in the URL for the University of Chicago and from there a university in New Zealand. Most universities have decent security, but anyone like me can get through it without too much difficulty. Should anyone inquire it would appear as though someone in the University of Chicago library had hacked into the University of Auckland. From there it was safe to access the email I'd used to contact the motorcycle gang.There was a message and several photos I thought Jenny would find interesting. I had no idea how they had managed to get a camera inside a state prison and I wasn't about to ask, but here in all his glory was a severely beaten former sheriff from Waterloo, Iowa. I was laughing so hard as I called Jenny that I could barely get her name out.She came in wondering what was going on so I explained then I showed the photos of her stepfather with his two black eyes, bandage on his forehead, and his arm in a cast, bandages wrapped tightly around his torso; a sure sign of bruised or broken ribs. She took one look and joined me in laughter. “This was you, wasn't it? Some friends or contacts you have?”“I cannot tell a lie, but I do plead the fifth; a person does not have to testify if his answer might incriminate him.”She leaned down to kiss me then whispered, “Thanks.” Then she kissed me again. I scrolled down the screen to read the text again; “What a complete fucktard this asshole is. He thinks he is still a hot shit, trying to boss everyone around. He has pissed off all the prisoners who have met him and more than half the guards. He'll be lucky to live out his sentence. Doubt he will. Thanks for the upgrade. It's working great. A friend” After deleting the message I went to join my beautiful wife on the deck.Jenny and I spent the next three weeks having fun; going to Bird Island on the southern end of Sunset Beach in the boat with Lady, or playing golf, or going to the beach. The only other thing we did was prepare for our visitors. There were no direct flights to either Myrtle Beach or to Wilmington, North Carolina, roughly fifty miles north of us so I phoned Executive Jet to make the arrangements once I had checked with Toni for dates and times. I insisted that the attendant be a woman to make the girls more comfortable. Take-off was scheduled for 9:00 Saturday morning so Toni and Charlie had their daughters at the Newark Airport General Aviation terminal at 8:20, giving them plenty of time to meet the captain and crew and double-check the arrangements before departure. Two hours later they were safely in Myrtle Beach, riding in Jenny's SUV with Lady seated between them and they were talking nonstop. I grinned toward Jenny, but she was into the conversation as much as the girls.They ran into the house and up the stairs to the bonus room closely followed by Lady. She jumped and capered, playfully nipping at their feet, as they put their clothes into the dresser and closet. I couldn't help but laugh. This was going to be some visit!I grilled hot dogs for lunch and then we took them to Bird Island in the boat. We liked Bird Island for several reasons. First, we could take Lady, even in the summer. She loved the beach and often scampered in the waves with us. Dogs were restricted from the town beach between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Also, Bird Island was on the Little River Inlet so we had a choice of the waves in the ocean or the calm water where we and others parked our boats. Bird Island had ceased to be an actual island decades ago when the narrow inlet between it and Sunset Beach had silted in. Still, it was more than a mile from the nearest road so it was virtually deserted even on the busiest weekend. The only practical way to get here was by boat. We'd brought the Blasi's here on their first visit and they loved it as much as we did.Lady raced back and forth when I pulled her Frisbee from the beach bag. The many holes from her teeth showed clearly how much she enjoyed playing with it. I reminded Andrea and Allison about the heat and Lady's need to rest and drink then sent them off to the ocean side which was completely deserted while Jenny and I set up our umbrella and beach chairs.Jenny was five months into her pregnancy so her baby bump was obvious. She'd bought a new swimsuit, telling me how much she hated seeing women's bare abdomens when obviously pregnant. “Some things should be private, don't you think?”I'd never given the idea much thought, but I could understand her reasoning. Some things should be private.The girls and Lady returned after about a half hour. They hadn't been in the ocean; not yet; because our rule was not to swim unless one of the adults was present. I'd red and heard of many idiotic things done by people at the beach. One of my roommates at Harvard had worked as a lifeguard at a state park near my home. I cringed at the stories he'd told me; how parents endangered their own children through things they'd never consider doing at home.We sat under the umbrella enjoying a Coke from the cooler and some fresh sliced veggies with a cup of ranch dressing. We dug in, eating and laughing until we'd had our fill. We went for a swim, staying fairly close to the shore. There was a lot of boat traffic farther out in the channel, some of it involving fairly big ships, so there was danger in swimming out too far. We all jumped into the water at the same time; all of us, except Lady. Dogs can swim, but they tire quickly. The dog paddle is a very inefficient stroke, using a lot of energy to go nowhere. Jenny had red of several dogs drowning at one of the local beaches. I always forced Lady to “stay” under the umbrella. Yes, dogs can get sunburned, too. We picked up our mess around four for the twenty minute trip home. I had the boat on the hydraulic lift, washing it carefully while Jenny and the girls carried the umbrella, chairs, and beach bag up to the house. I followed a few minutes later, carrying the cooler. We were ready to go out for dinner by 5:15, driving into Calabash for pizza.We were back about ninety minutes later and I fed Lady, noticing how quiet things were in the living room. “Everything okay in here,” I asked.“Jenny, could we ask you something? It's kind of personal.”“Okay, Andrea; go ahead.”“Mom told us that you ran away from home.”“That's right; did she tell you why?” Andrea shook her head “no.” “You're so lucky to have wonderful loving parents. You should thank God for them every day. I had a wonderful father, but he died in an industrial accident when I was ten. My mother remarried almost two years later. She wasn't married even a month when my stepfather; the county sheriff; made his first nighttime trip to my bedroom. I screamed the entire time he raped me, but my mother ignored me. I screamed every time he did it; two to three times a week; for the next five years. I hated that man; I still do. I hated him so much that I ran away when I had the chance. Anything was better than having to lie under his fat sweaty body almost every other day. I knew that I'd have to have sex with some of the men who picked me up, but most of them were nice decent people who just wanted to help me.“I had sex with lots of other men, but I've only made love with Doug. Do you understand the difference?”“I think so,” Allison said. “Dumb animals can have sex, but they don't make love.”“That's true,” Jenny told them. “For me; I would lie down and allow men to use my body, but I was somewhere else. I never had an orgasm and I didn't want one. With Doug I'm always an active participant because I love him. I want it to be good for him just as he wants it to be good for me. Are you guys ready for Monday at the doctor?”“Oh yeah, Jenny; we're looking forward to it,” Andrea replied eagerly. Jenny had realized that she had an appointment for a sonogram scheduled for the week they would visit. She presented three options to Toni: cancel the appointment; take them, but leave them in the waiting room; or take them in to experience the test with us. I wasn't surprised when Charlie and Toni said they'd accept whatever we wanted to do, but thought that seeing a real sonogram would be an excellent and interesting learning experience for their daughters. Jenny and I agreed. Monday would be the day; a big day for all of us.Sunday morning Jenny and I drove them to church and then to brunch at a nice restaurant in Myrtle Beach. We spent the afternoon at Farmstead hitting balls and practicing our putting. Andrea did quite well, especially considering that they didn't have their own clubs and hadn't practiced since their last visit. Allison, however, smoked the ball. “Gee Allison,” her sister commented, “watching you makes me wonder if Daddy is really your father.” Allison howled in laughter then she went to the putting green and smoked everything under eight feet. Jenny and I must have given her a dozen high fives and even more knuckle bumps.Everyone seemed more than a bit nervous at breakfast the following morning. We were in my car before any of us had even spoken. It was Allison who broke the ice. “I bet you're hoping for a boy, Doug.”After laughing, Jenny replied for me. “You'd lose that bet, Allison. Doug wants a girl.”“That's right,” I joined in. “Girls tend to stay close to their families even after getting married although Jenny is an obvious exception. Boys don't generally have much choice because their wives have made it for them, just like almost every other decision.”Jenny laughed and the girls joined her. Then Jenny ended the conversation with, “And don't you forget it!”“Yes, boss!” Jenny giggled then leaned across the console to kiss my cheek. Thirtyminutes later we were in Dr. Cullen's office, sitting nervously until we were called then I thought the nurse would have a cow. I guess she'd never had such a crowd follow her into the exam room.Jenny was handed a gown and pointed toward the restroom. “You've got to be kidding,” she told the nurse. “Why would I want to hide a body like this?” She took off her top and bra and pulled the gown over her arms. I tied a bow behind her neck, but left the other undone as Jenny removed her shorts and lay on the exam table.She was there about fifteen minutes when Dr. Cullen entered with a smile. “I heard this was going to be a theatrical production.” I introduced Andrea and Allison and Dr. Cullen told them where they should stand in order to get the best view. She rubbed some gel on Jenny's abdomen and asked what we were hoping for.“Doug wants a girl,” Allison blurted.“How much do you girls know about sonograms?”“We went online to Google when our mom told us about being here for Jenny's test,” Andrea replied.“Yeah, we must have red six or seven articles about it,” Allison added.“And I bet we looked at four or five videos,” Andrea added. I just laughed; Jenny smiled. We loved their enthusiasm.“Well then, can you tell me what we should look for to determine the sex?”Allison giggled, but Andrea came straight out and answered, “A penis, but sometimes the umbilical cord gets in the way or is confused for a penis.” Dr. Cullen joined Jenny and me in laughing, but did ask if the girls were looking for work. “I'm hiring; I'd bet you know more than most of my staff.”Then Dr. Cullen got down to business. She applied the sensor to Jenny's skin, rubbing it into the gel, and all of us paid the closest attention. We could see the baby's body and head. The umbilical was obvious, but we never did see a penis. “Well, girls, what's the sex?”“It's a girl,” they shouted together.“Another correct diagnosis; are you sure you've never done this before?” We shared a laugh then Dr. Cullen checked Jenny's lungs and heartbeat, reviewed her diet and exercise regimens and told us things couldn't be better. We were out the door five minutes later, laughing and hugging each other before I treated to lunch.We encouraged the girls to call home every day and they did, usually around 5:15 so their dad would be home from work. Every day after they'd spoken Charlie would ask to speak with me and he'd ask how his daughters were behaving. Every day I'd give him the same answer; the way I'd want my daughters to behave. Today's conversation was more elated yelling and screaming than anything else. Andrea began with, ”IT'S A GIRL, MOM! A GIRL!! WE SAW HER INSIDE JENNY. IT WAS INCREDIBLE.” Then Allison added that I had wanted a girl and the yelling started anew.Once they had calmed down Charlie took the phone for his daily question. “Excited,” I replied, “and a bit noisy today, but that's to be expected. It's been an exciting day.” I ended the call and drove everyone down to Myrtle Beach to Captain George's, an excellent seafood buffet where the food was almost as good as in a high end sit-down restaurant.We spent the rest of their visit either at the beach or on the golf course or shopping for baby clothes and accessories. We were actually sorry to see them leave on Sunday; the day before Labor Day. We went shopping in earnest for furniture that week. One of the things we decided was that we wanted to buy a quality set that would last through her entire childhood. We decided on a dresser and crib with a matching twin headboard and desk (can't plan too far ahead if you're a nerd) in a washed blonde maple finish. We'd put the headboard and desk away for now in an air-conditioned storage facility about two miles away until it was needed.The rest of Jenny's pregnancy was uneventful, but she pouted something awful when Dr. Cullen told her to stop penetrative sex in her seventh month. “Don't worry, Jen; I can still take care of you with my mouth and fingers.”My Jenny kissed me then led me to

Savvas Marcou, University of California Berkeley MyShake is a free smartphone application, developed at UC Berkeley, that serves as one of the main delivery mechanisms for earthquake early warning (EEW) alerts issued to the US West Coast by the USGS ShakeAlert system. While it is most well-known for delivering alerts to the public, MyShake was originally conceived as a platform for crowdsourcing earthquake data. MyShake currently collects crowdsourced shaking experience reports, EEW message delivery receipts, as well as triggered acceleration waveforms using the onboard smartphone accelerometer. In this talk, I will present the progress made in taking advantage of the growing MyShake crowdsourced database, in two key areas: 1) Studies of ground motion variability in California, 2) Earthquake early warning performance assessment and predictive modeling. In the first part of the talk, I will introduce the MyShake Ground Motion Database, a database of over 1500 acceleration observations collected from 2019 to 2023 using triggered waveforms from MyShake phones globally, with a focus on California. Past research shows that the accelerations recorded by MyShake phones are systematically higher than accelerations recorded by ground-based (i.e. “free-field”) stations, likely due to the modifying effect of buildings. My work thus treats these accelerations as a distinct intensity metric, rather than equivalent to free-field acceleration. I show the development of a bespoke MyShake Ground Motion Model, and how it can be used to map the spatial variability of ground motion with remarkable correspondence to results from the free-field. I will then discuss the potential applications in ground motion products such as ShakeMap, as well as the validation of next-generation non-ergodic (i.e., location specific) ground motion models. In the second part of the talk, I will focus on MyShake’s role as an EEW delivery platform. I will present a new methodology that uses alert delivery data to rapidly assess the end-to-end performance of the US West Coast alerting pipeline every time MyShake sends out an alert. I then introduce a thought experiment where we combine our understanding of delivery latencies with the network-based, point source EEW algorithm EPIC to demonstrate the potential effectiveness of EEW in the February 2023 Turkiye earthquake doublet. Finally, I will show what the results could mean for EEW performance in a large California earthquake.

(1) Stephen Wu, (2) Keisuke Yano, Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Japan (1) Since 2021, the Seismology TowArd Research innovation with data of Earthquake (STAR-E) project has been established by the Japanese government to promote interdisciplinary research between data science and seismology. Five proposals have been accepted to be the core projects of STAR-E and EEW has become a sub-project in one of the selected projects. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the plan to improve EEW in Japan through integration with data science. While no concrete results have been obtained yet, I will share part of the blueprint of the possible EEW development in Japan for the future 5 years. (2) In real data analysis, we often encounter mixed-domain data. Mixed-domain data refer to multivariate data in various domains such as real values, categorical values, manifold values, and functional values. In this presentation, we will introduce our minimum information dependence model. This statistical model is tailored to analyze mixed-domain data with potential higher-order dependencies. We will highlight its utility through its application in the ecological study of penguins and in the analysis of earthquake catalogs.

Explore along with Jasmine and Gracie as they head to Kiwi land!  Find out which was first, the bird or the fruit!  Jasmine is not happy to discover what kind of insects are in the glow cave.  EEW.  But she does like the ride down the hill in a giant ball.  But does Gracie?  Come along and find out.  

Sacha Litman is a core member of the Public Sector practice at Boston Consulting Group and the global lead for analytics in education, employment, and welfare (EEW) for that practice. Sacha is an expert in talent gaps, higher education turnarounds, pricing, and student financing.Sacha advises higher education, employer, and state leaders on building education/employer partnerships that close talent supply/demand gaps in order to improve students' employment outcomes; employer talent acquisition costs and retention; higher education enrollment, brand perception; financial sustainability; and states' ability to attract and retain talent and employers. He has extensive experience in pricing and analytics, and designs models such as outcomes-aligned student financing, financial aid optimization, HR/workforce analytics, and schedule optimization.Sacha is a former edtech founder and CEO, with the entrepreneurial skills to build pioneering new approaches. Before joining BCG, he was the leader of Public Sector Advanced Analytics for McKinsey & Company, and CEO of the education analytics firm Measuring Success.Recommended Resources:A Turnaround for Higher Ed in the US by Sacha Litman, Tyce Henry, J. Puckett, and Lina BankertWhy Student Financing Must Align with Outcomes by Sacha Litman, Claudia Newman-Martin, Matt Beckett, and John PinedaHow Higher Ed and Employers Can Partner to Power Talent Pipelines by Sacha Litman, Lane McBride, Tejus Kothari, Claudia Newman-Martin, Ruth Ebeling, and Frank Breitling

We had a fantastic time at Stitches West 2023 in Sacramento, California and  have lots to report. Plus we have prizes! Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or  Subscribe on Google Podcasts Marsha's Projects Noromania: I have a total of 24 skeins of Noro Kureyon (Aran weight) to make a blanket for Mark. I've knit 20 inches and used 10 balls. I think I need to buy more yarn. This is a fun project. Anzula Socks: Using two shades of Anzula Dreamy (blue) and Squishy (coral) that I bought at Stitches 2022. Flowers from My Garden: Starting a spinning project with fiber I bought at Stitches this month. Considering A Little Love by Ankestrick use Brooklyn Tweed Loft Kelly's Projects Finished but still need to block the Coloresque Wrap Erin Kurup using the Neighborhood Fiber Company rustic fingering gradient set Shades of Turquoise.   Finished and washed In Threes baby sweater. Finished half dozen dishcloths Started socks for Robert out of Purls Before Wine (From Purl 2 Walla Walla). Colorway is called Glamping so I had to buy it! On the loom: Crackle lesson from Jane Stafford Guild. 7 yard warp instead of 10. Made the outer stripes wider because of the way I fold towels on the towel rod in our kitchen. Using the two cones of 8/2 cotton that I bought at stitches from Meridian Specialty Yarns Stitches West Prizes: We will draw from our Patrons and our Ravelry thread in the next episode.  Weird Sisters Wool Emporium The Royal Bee Company Oink Pigment Nano Stitch Lab Just a few links to the things Marsha and Kim talked about in the last episode. EEW 6.0 Electric spinning wheel from Dreaming Robots. Willingham Weavery weaving class Weaving with Janet Dawson

This week it's a dispatch from Seattle as Marsha and Kim discuss their northwest fiber adventures.   Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Just a few links to the things Marsha and Kim talk about.  EEW 6.0 Electric spinning wheel from Dreaming Robots. Willingham Weavery weaving class Weaving with Janet Dawson  

Get ready with us as we prepare for our 200th episode! For our anniversary we will be answering listeners' questions. Send your questions to twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com or use the Ravelry thread, or DM 1hundredprojects or betterinmotion on instagram. Full notes with photos and links can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Marsha's Projects:  January Blanket: Handspun Manx Loaghton, 3-ply aran weight, 1,460 yards. Decided to add one additional 15 stitch repeat so I cast on 192 stitches. I went up a need size to #9 and have knit about 34 inches. Estimating it is going to be about 4' x 5” Noromania: Bought 18 skeins of Noro Kureyon (Aran weight) to make a blanket for Mark. Swatched with #8 and #9.  Falkland/Silk/Merino: about 800 yards fingering EEW 6.0 Electric spinning wheel from Dreaming Robots. Spinning some Polwarth roving. Kelly's Projects: Continuing to work on the Coloresque Wrap Erin Kurup using the Neighborhood Fiber Company rustic fingering gradient set Shades of Turquoise.  Finished weaving on the Monk's Belt Weaving project. I got 7 towels and enjoyed the process. It isn't my favorite weave structure, but I like the results better than I thought I would. Still need to cut them apart and hem them.  Current piano songs: Happy Birthday (deadline coming soon!), Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and Star Spangled Banner for Baseball spring training. Episode 200 Q and A: To celebrate 200 episodes and over eight years of podcasting, we'll answer your questions. Ask us about yarn, our lives, the meaning of life, Fibonacci, poodle grooming, or whatever… We'll do our best! Send your questions to twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com or use the Ravelry thread, or DM 1hundredprojects or betterinmotion on instagram.  Patreon Pattern Giveaway  A hearty, year-end thank you to our patrons! Your support has made our show better and our prizes more numerous. Message Kelly with the pattern of your choice ($10 or less). Thank you for your generosity. You've helped to build this community! Stitches West March 2-5 in Sacramento  Winter Weave Along October 1 - March 31

Authors often put themselves into their work. But these ones literally wrapped themselves in it. This strange trend is one I hope doesn't come back around! Eew! Find us Link.tree.com Support us Patreon.com/thecousinsweird Email usthecousinsweird@gmail.com Sources:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Music from Upbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/danijel-z... License code: LZ5ZUHQLWV7IN6XH

Happy New Year to our listeners! We have finished projects including a huge completion for Marsha. We've started some projects, plus some discussion about a new e-spinner. Full notes with photos and links and a transcript can be found in the podcast section of our shop website: TwoEwesFiberAdventures.com Join the community on Ravelry or become a patron and support the show on our Patreon Page. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Subscribe on Android or Subscribe on Google Podcasts Episode 200 Q and A: To celebrate 200 episodes and over eight years of podcasting, we'll answer your questions. Ask us about yarn, our lives, the meaning of life, Fibonacci, poodle grooming, or whatever… We'll do our best! Send your questions to twoewes@twoewesfiberadventures.com or use the Ravelry thread, or DM 1hundredprojects or betterinmotion on instagram.  Marsha's Projects:  Ben's Sweater: Whoohoo!! His sweater is finished! January Blanket: Handspun Manx Loaghton, 3-ply aran weight, 1,460 yards. Decided to add one additional 15 stitch repeat so I cast on 192 stitches. I went up a need size to #9 and have knit about 28 inches. Noromania: Bought 18 skeins of Noro Kureyon (Aran weight) to make a blanket for Mark. EEW 6.0 Electric spinning wheel from Dreaming Robots. Kelly's Projects: I finished what I set out in the last episode: the angel from the knitted nativity scene kit, a bumper for Minnie's wool cat bed, and a warp for Monk's Belt dishtowels. I started the Coloresque Wrap Erin Kurup using the Neighborhood Fiber Company rustic fingering gradient set Shades of Turquoise. This was a door prize from the NoCKRs retreat several years ago. I started this project as Stitches West knitting, but couldn't follow the pattern in that setting and gave it up. Then I lost the yarn for at least a year! It is really more of a wide scarf than a wrap, but it might block out bigger than it looks.  I've returned to working on the spirit yarn mohair vest. I will have A LOT of yarn left over. I think I could have made a Garter Squish blanket. Monk's Belt Weaving project: I am making dish towels rather than the placemats in the JST episode. I started with what I thought were neutral gray and brown and once they were put together they look a lot like lilac and orange. We talk a little about the way colors work in weaving and how the brain and preconceived ideas also affect the way we interpret colors.  Patreon Pattern Giveaway  A hearty, year-end thank you to our patrons! Your support has made our show better and our prizes more numerous. Message Kelly with the pattern of your choice ($10 or less). Thank you for your generosity. You've helped to build this community! Winter Weave Along October 1 - March 31 Transcript Full transcript available at twoewesfiberadventures.com Marsha  0:03   Hi, this is Marsha and this is Kelly. We are the Two Ewes of Two Ewes Fiber Adventures. Thanks for stopping by. Kelly  0:10   You'll hear about knitting, spinning, dyeing, crocheting, and just about anything else we can think of as a way to play with string. Marsha  0:17   We blog and post show notes at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com. Kelly  0:22   And we invite you to join our Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group on Ravelry. I'm 1hundred projects and I am better in motion. We are both on Instagram and Ravelry. And we look forward to meeting you there. Enjoy the Episode! Marsha  0:42   Hi, Kelly, Happy New Year. Kelly  0:44   Happy New Year to you too, Marsha. Marsha  0:46   Yeah, this is the first time we talked I think since before the holiday. Kelly  0:50   Yeah. How's how's your 2023 been? Marsha  0:53   It's been very nice so far. Because I left New Year's Day for the beach. We went to-- Kim and I went down to the Oregon coast to Cannon Beach. And with the dogs, because the dogs needed a vacation from the stress of the holidays. Kelly  1:10   Only the dogs needed a vacation from the stress of the holidays?  [laughing] Marsha  1:14   Yeah [laughing] So it's nice. We had four nights down there. It was really fun. I don't know if you saw any of the pictures I posted but they had very high tides. So we couldn't really go to the beach in the morning like we normally do. We had to wait till the afternoon till the tide went out. So that was a little bit different. But it was fine. Kelly  1:34   I did see the one picture you posted where there literally was no beach. Marsha  1:38   Yeah, it was hitting the the rock wall they have along in front of the hotel where we were staying. And I actually thought, those really expensive, desirable homes that are right on the beach with a fantastic views? I don't know that I want to stay in one of those.  Kelly  1:54   Yeah Marsha  1:55   I liked being--we had a view. But we were not right on the beach. We were back. We kind of overlooked--It doesn't sound good, But it was it's actually fine--You sort of overlook a parking lot for the park. And so you're back at solid 50 yards probably from the beach, which made me--and we were up on the third floor which made me feel better. I don't think I'd want to be on one of those houses right on the beach. With the bedrooms on the ground floor. Yeah, not during this storm. And, and you're having storms down there too, right? in California? Kelly  2:26   Yeah, we weren't hit as bad as some of the surrounding areas. We but we've had--every time it rains we've had more than an inch, which is really unusual for us to, you know, to get that much rain at a time. We did have one day, it wasn't this most recent storm it was maybe a week and a half ago where the street flooded in front of our house, you know because of the slough, what used to be the slough, running through our yard and through the yards of, you know, all of the the neighbors. It comes right across the street, you know, what used to be the slough. You can see from above you know, it's comes right across our street. And so the street kind of dips down because of the the old slough having been there.  Marsha  3:18   Right  Kelly  3:19   And so that part of the-- that part where the street dips down floods and the, you know, especially if the if the city pumps for the stormwater aren't working properly, then it really floods. Anyway, it got high enough that it went above the curb and was flowing into the old slough in our yard. And so I always like it-- Robert hates when that happens but I always like it because I feel like I'm capturing stormwater for my own yard. Like yay! Extra water! But this year he was worried about it because he said, you know, he didn't want it to he didn't want that water to undermine his his fence posts that he had put in and that didn't happen. It, you know, was nothing huge. But there was some water runoff from the street into our into our little ravine and that hasn't  happened in a in quite a few years. So so yeah, we you know we we didn't suffer much at all. We didn't suffer at all from the from the storm. But like the beach in in the Capitola area, one of the old beaches that I used to, you know, the beach that I used to go to when I was a kid, their whole parking lot is gone. Just destroyed from the from the tides. Robert was showing me pictures this morning. And he's been really watching the weather and you know he's got the Weather Channel and all the places that he used to look when he was working at the agency and needed to keep tabs on what the weather was going to be for their generator system case power-- case of power outages and the storm water. So they could predict and, you know, because the stormwater goes to the treatment plant. Yeah, he was really-- well, he has been sort of obsessing over the   radar and all that. Marsha  5:12   Well and when I was at the beach he texted me that about the light fixtures on the front of the house that I helped him put them up that one time I was down there. And he was-- he put some extra wire on them I think, to secure them because he was really worried about the winds. Yeah, the reason why you got those new ones is the wind had knocked the old ones, had damaged the old ones. So he was really worried about that. They're fine though? So far? Kelly  5:36   Yeah, yeah, they are fine. The only-- his rain gauge, which is a five gallon bucket, the one day that the wind was so so hard I looked out the kitchen window, and this white plastic bucket goes flying across the yard. Oh Okay! So now he's got, he turned our, we have a like a, you know, that teak side table. He turned that upside down, set the bucket inside of the four legs, and then propped bricks around the edge to both hold the table down and hold the bucket firmly inside the table. He's got that sitting outside to measure so he can kind of keep track of the rain. The amount of rain. I measure it by the amount that's in the dog dishes. So I have a 12 hour rain gauge, you know, feed the dogs in the morning and when I go out at night and feed them again I see how much is there. Yesterday, it was about an inch in the 12 hours. It was pretty steady. And not hard rain, but pretty steady all day. Until yesterday afternoon. Today, we have a break. It's really nice. It's um, I can even see blue sky outside. So there was one day that it was so gray. It felt like nighttime all day long. It was  super unusual for us. So anyway, yeah, that's what's been happening here. Aunt Betty had her second cataract surgery and it went all fine. So now we're good. So she's, she's happy. She's able to see. She had a follow up appointment yesterday. So that's all good. So yeah, my 2023 is going pretty well, too. Yeah, well, mine is going pretty well, because I had a nice trip to the beach. And then I'll talk about some other stuff when we get to projects. So should we jump into projects? Or? Well let me just announce about the episode 200 As long as we're stopping for business here. So we are currently on episode 198. Coming up on episode 200. And so we're going to do for episode 200 a listener q&a. So we'll answer your questions. And we've got quite a few questions already between email and the Ravelry thread. But I put up a Ravelry thread where you can ask questions, or you can email us to us at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com. Or you can message us, you know on Instagram, or you can use our website Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot com. And there's a Contact Us page and you can use that to send us an email. Lots of ways for you to let us know what your questions are. And then we're going to answer them on episode 200.  Marsha  8:43   Try to answer! Kelly  8:44   All of them. Yeah. And I have been listening to some of the older episodes just kind of going back to refresh my memory about them. At first I was a little worried like oh I'm not sure I want to go back there and see how we sound. You know we weren't that bad Marsha.[laughing] I think we did pretty good. First. I just remember, I do remember when we first started, on every episode, Robert would go to work and he'd listened to it. Then the next day he'd give me a rundown. It helped us get better. I do have to say that it helped us get better. But sometimes it was not a welcome critique. [laughing] Marsha  9:29   Now do you remember? I'm kind of curious, like maybe I shouldn't even ask but I'm dying of curiosity. Like what were some of the critiques that that he would give? Kelly  9:37   He said I repeated myself, which I still do. When I edit sometimes I think oh Kelly, why did you have to say the same phrase three times while you were thinking of the next thing you were gonna say? He also said that I talk slowly. Like I'll be talking along at a normal pace and then he can tell that I'm thinking because I get really slow. So, stuff like that, you know. And then when we started actually recording together, he's like, You guys are much more interesting when you're recording on the phone together. So.. Marsha  10:12   Yeah, I know, I think that changed the dynamic a lot, you know, when we started recording together, but I still listen to myself and every episode I'm critical of myself. Like, I can't follow my train of thought. And I, and I make so many mistakes too, in terms of when I'm describing stockinette, or garter stitch, or making the garter Squish, blanket. like, Ah, god, sometimes I listen back and I roll my eyes, you know, but anyway, we're just human right? Kelly  10:52   Yeah, you need to be kinder to yourself, Marsha. Marsha  10:55   Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yes, I've been reading the questions, and I'm looking forward to answering them. Kelly  11:02   Yeah, it'll be fun. So do do. Send us your questions. And, you know, it could be about anything. So far, a lot of the questions have been about about our lives and our crafting and the podcast, that kind of thing. But, but yeah. Bring them on. Let's see. Marsha  11:27   All right. Okay. So projects. Kelly  11:29   Yeah, so let's go. I can go first. So last episode, I said, I had some plans. I did not have much knitting, but I did have some plans. And I can say that I did what I set out to do, I finished the angel from the knitted nativity scene. I did finish the star the knitting of the star. Now I just have to sew it. It's two pieces and then you sew them together and stuff it. So she's holding on to this stuffed star. So I didn't I didn't get it, but I haven't sewn it together and stuffed it but the angel part is done. I even washed her hair because the the yarn, the yarn that they had for her hair was wound around a cardboard. Most of the yarn was in little, little balls or cakes. And the yarn for her hair. I'm not sure why, was wrapped around a cardboard. And so where it wrapped around, it had like a kink. So her ponytails were very messy. Were curling all--just all different ways. And not curled. But like fish hooked, you know, like kinked.  Marsha  12:47   Yeah, yeah,  Kelly  12:48   The edge of that cardboard. So I wet the her hair. I had to wet it down twice. And then let her dry before before most of that came out, so so she's done. I've knit a bumper for Minnie's cat bed. And it's in there.  Marsha  13:05   Yeah?  Kelly  13:06   So, and I do know she slept in at least one night. During the real rainy days, she sleeps in the-- we have a house out there that I have a woven a wool woven pad in-- the one she used to have-- I put in there. And she sleeps in there when it's rainy, and she needs to really stay out of the rain or it's really cold. I'm not sure where she sleeps all the time, because she's not always on the front porch, especially since we got Beary and he barks at her. Although she doesn't--honestly I say she doesn't sleep there because of Beary. But Beary has been on the front porch coming in, you know, in the morning. And she has been under the car in the driveway on the porch in that same morning and walked up to him. Like, twice. So she's not really afraid of him. Although she-- I don't think she likes the barking. But she's not afraid of him. He's afraid of her. This is funny. You'll you'll get a kick out of this. So one morning, Robert had him and he kind of growled at her as she was walking towards him. And so Robert, you know, corrected him and said no. And so, and he was you know, wiping off his feet and stuff to let him in. And so Beary turned himself around and put his head in the corner of the porch. So you didn't have to look at her. Here's this big dog. He's really kind of afraid of her. He doesn't know what to make of her. And so since he couldn't growl or do anything wrong, do anything aggressive towards her. He had to just put his head in the corner. If you can't see her, she doesn't exist.[laughing] Yeah, so all of that orange wool is gone. And then I had to grab some additional coned wool from my weaving stash. And I knit with it for the rest of the bumper. So I got that done. And then the third thing that was on my list for before was to wind a warp for monks' belt. For the monk's belt project at the Jane Stafford Guild, and I did, I did that as well. And I'll talk more about that at the end of my projects. So I got all of that done. And then I've even returned to working on the mohair vest.  Marsha  15:33   Oh, okay.  Kelly  15:34   Yeah, that's what I have in my lap right now, what I've been knitting on, and I tried it on this morning. And so it's top down. And I have more than 12, about 12 inches from the armholes. So it's kind of at high hip length.  I want it to be longer so I'm I'm continuing to knit down but I'm gonna have so much yarn leftover. Maybe I won't, maybe once I put the ribbing and the the band on. I started with three skeins, I've basically got two balls, which is one skein that I am working on actively and then one skein in the bag  so I don't know. We'll see. So I'm continuing it. Maybe I should have made a blanket, because I think I'm gonna have a lot of yarn leftover but it's back on its-- back in the rotation. And then the other project, I started a new project knitting project. Do you remember the yarn I lost? The neighborhood fiber company gradients? Marsha  16:52   Oh right. Yeah, Kelly  16:54   Yeah. I think I lost it twice. I mean, I think I lost it, discovered it, said oh, okay, that's where it is. And then forgot where it was. And lost it again. I can't exactly remember. But anyway, it's 1250 yards of rustic fingering from neighborhood fiber company. And it's a turquoise it's called Shades of Turquoise. It's a turquoise gradient. And it starts with a really dark dark, almost black, blue, and then changed into a more true-- I don't know if I call it turquoise, I guess I call it turquoise. A more true turquoise. So there's two really dark skeins, then there's like this medium bright turquoise, and then there's two light turquoise skeins. So I'm doing the original project, I looked around for something else. But I thought you know what, I'm just gonna go back to the original project that I selected for this. It's called the Coloresque Wrap. And it's by Erin Kurup. I think her company name is remade by hand. And actually I met her at stitches. And I believe that this was a gift from her, this pattern. And so I started it one year. Right after I think the year after I got it. I started it for my Stitches West project, which was a mistake.  Marsha  18:22   Yes, I remember. I remember you working on it. Kelly  18:26   Yeah, I'm not sure if I had been a little further along when we went to stitches, I think it would have been okay. But it's it's a striping pattern. So as you're using two colors, and it's a striping pattern that has you doing stockinette and then one pearl ridge and then stockinette and then one pearl ridge. And so I was having trouble with that. And then I was also having trouble with the-- it's trapezoidal. So you're knitting together on one side and making one on the other side, knitting in front and back on the other side. So it's going kind of out of slant and like a trapezoid. So that was an issue. Remembering to do that was an issue. And then it has, it's not really a big edge detail. But it has a little edge detail to keep the edges nice and tidy. And that was giving me fits. So I had to-- I came home and it was such a mess that I just ripped it out. But now it's back on the needles and I've gotten a fair ways along I think I'm maybe at about 20 inches. Maybe a little longer than maybe closer to 30 Marsha  19:43   Do you have a project page for this?  Kelly  19:46   Yeah, I just put up a project page but I don't have a picture yet. Marsha  19:50   Okay, oh, let me look here. Oh, here it is. I see. Kelly  19:52   Okay, and then it has lace. The pattern has these stripes and then it also has lace sections. And so it gives me the opportunity to use the colors. And it's kind of--the pattern is nice because it's kind of set up, I mean, they have the pattern, she has the pattern set up where you just follow the pattern with your colors. But then she also has a page in the, I think it's in the pattern, or maybe it's on--also linked on the pattern page. But she has a page where you can do your own color design.  Marsha  19:53   Mm hmm.  Kelly  20:01   And so she has like the template of the of the shawl or wrap laid out. And then she talks about, you know, how you can figure out which colors to put where and, and it does talk about how many grams of of yarn you use for the lace sections, although I added a repeat, so mine won't be following that exactly, you know. The next lace section I do, I'll have to weigh my yarn and then determine how much yarn I need for one of the lace sections. So I've got two lace sections in here now with the striping pattern in between. And I liked the lace section. So I think I'll do more of them than is in their original pattern. Because I kind of liked that. I haven't done lace in a long time. It actually looks kind of like the lace that you have, like little V pattern Chevron.  Marsha  21:19   Yeah, in my blanket.  Kelly  21:21   Looks very similar to the lace in your in your blog. Marsha  21:24   Nice. Well, I'm, I'm interested to see a picture of it posted. But this is a nice looking shawl It's pretty. Kelly  21:32   So I've just been choosing colors along the way trying to keep you know, kind of the gradient idea going from dark to light, but I have the contrast stripes. So I've got you know, sometimes I have two medium colors together in the stripe, sometimes I have the darkest with the lightest, or colors just a couple or one or two shades away. Since I have five colors, I have a lot of choices. And it's coming out nicely. It's looking right now like it's not going to be more than just a wide scarf with stripes and lace combination. But maybe when I block it, it'll be a little bit wider. The original pattern called for I think was about 12 inches wide. And then I added an additional repeat of the lace because I wanted it to be a little bit wider than that. But I didn't want to make it so wide that then I wasn't going to have enough yarn. I wasn't sure how that was going to work. So I'm moving along on it and enjoying it. It's giving me, it's giving me two projects on the go that are knitting projects. So and then I have my my weaving project.  Marsha  22:43   Okay, and let's hear about that.  Kelly  22:45   So I'm making-- I decided with the monks belt that I wanted to make, of course, dishtowels. The project for the Jane Stafford guild is placemats. So at first I was a little worried that maybe it was a weave structure that wasn't a good choice for dish towels. But I found a dish towel pattern in a book I had bought years ago and it was monks belt and turns out it's exactly the same draft as what's in the Jane Stafford guild, which is basically the Marguerite Porter Davison, you know Weaver's bible of stitches. This Monks belt draft is not anything, you know, it's not anything new and improved or you know, combined with other things or whatever. So I'm basically following the information from the episode of The Jane Stafford School of weaving TV Guild and also following the pattern from this book. But the book has only two dish towels in its warp and I put on enough for six dish towels I should have enough for six dish towels so I have a little bit of room to play which will be fun. I did want to talk a little bit about color choice. Because I had decided--I thought I would make dish towels for Sarah for housewarming gift, my niece. And for my mom for her trailer. The new trailer is sort of gray and brown. The floor is tha-- a lot of people have you know the gray like wood floor now is kind of popular? And that is the flooring in the trailer. They don't have carpet they just have the grayish wood flooring and then, you know, kind of brown upholstery and stuff so I thought okay, I'll do neutrals. And I know Sarah, as much as she loves color, is more along the neutrals line for stuff in her house. So I thought okay, this would be good. I'll find some neutrals. So I grabbed-- you remember the yarn that you got me the Swedish yarn that you got me from the goodwill? The weaving yarn came in a bag-- there was a red and a green and a gray. Marsha  25:07   Oh, right. I didn't know it was Swedish but oh yeah, I remember getting that. Yeah, Kelly  25:11   I think it's I think it's Swedish. Anyway. Okay, I took one of the--I decided to use the gray out of that. And then I used one of the cones I have of the Sally Fox Fox fiber, which is a brown is called Sienna, Sierra Sienna Brown. And you know, the color crayon color of Sienna?  Marsha  25:31   Yeah,  Kelly  25:31   Kind of a rusty brown-- a yellow, yellow or orange toned brown. So there's that. And then I saw-- I put those two together. I was like, okay, yeah, this is what I'm going to use it's going to be nice and neutrals, gray, brown. I have a little bit of black. I have oh, I have this other cone of this variegated black and brown yarn that I bought thinking I would knit a linen shawl that I never a lace shawl that I never did. So I got that out. I got them all together. And I wound them. You know, this is great! Neutrals. And the gray looks purple. And the brown looks orange. When you put all those colors together... Marsha  25:38    So interestin! Kelly  26:20   next to each other, you can really tell that this is a gray that leans purple blue, like bluey purple, like a lilac color. It sort of leans lilac. And this brown, of course, leans very orange. And because those were such, you know, because purple and orange are such contrasting colors. I think they're what complimentary colors maybe. Right? It really, it really makes them look like they're--it's purple and orange. So it's okay, it's not the neutral that I was going for. It's really pretty. I really like it. Not sure they'll go to the intended recipients. It depends how. depends how they come out-- what I think once I've got them off the loom. Once I've you know, put other colors in the weft because that tones things down a little bit too. So. So we'll see. Marsha  27:20   I'm just going to interject here about color and weaving. You made me some towels that are actually red, white and gray. And I swear that gray is green. And I think it's because, and I always I use them at Christmas time because to me they look like Christmas color. But it's not green. It's gray.  Kelly  27:40   Right.  Marsha  27:41   So I don't know it's so interesting Kelly  27:43   That same gray? I'm using as a weft color. Okay, and against the other ones. It looks blue. It's like a slate blue. Yeah, Marsha  27:55   yeah. And I have to say in the towels, it doesn't look like Christmas green. But it definitely looks like a green to me, like a forest green. Kind of.  It's not I know, it's I know, it's gray. But Kelly  28:10   Well, and those are the same those. That's the exact same warp as the napkins in the trailer. Okay, yeah. And in the trailer, to me it it reads as gray. Not green, but in the house, it really did look like, it did look green to me, too. Yeah. So it's very interesting. choosing colors-- it's fascinating. I really think it's really an interesting thing. And then and then the thing about weaving that doesn't happen in knitting. Is that optical blending, you know, you get a lot more of the optical blending in weaving because the, I want to say the pixels are so small, right? When you're weaving, your yarn is going over and under each other. The dots of color are about the size of the yarn, unless you're doing stripes.  Marsha  29:05   Yeah.  Kelly  29:06   Whereas with with knitting, your dots of color, the smallest they can be is really a stitch. You know, I mean, even if you're doing mosaic stitch where you're trying to blend optically blend the colors, doing mosaic knitting or slip stitches, where you're trying to optically blend the colors. You're not going to get that kind of blending so much with knitting so it-- Yeah, it's it is kind of funny. And then one last thing about these is the  patterning in them is coming from the color that I'm using for the weft. So I started with a weft of an even deeper rust color. And then a black and then that slate, that slate color that you think looks green, and that I have thought looked blue and I I, I was like, okay, yeah, this will be a good, this will be a good color progression, you know, and I'll just repeat this color pattern. And then I took a picture of it this morning and put it on Ravelry. And when I looked at the picture, I went, Oh, the black and the gray look like the same color in this picture. I think I need to take out the black and go rust, or rather, take out the gray, the slate that I just started because I don't have that much of it. I mean, I have less than half an inch. So I think I'm gonna take that out and go rust, and then black and then rust and then slate. I don't think I want the black and the slate next to each other because they look too much like the same color. Not enough value difference. So anyway. It's one of the things I love about weaving is the the color play that you can do. And I'll do--you know with six towels, I'll get into a lot. So yeah, my purple and orange dish towels. [laughing] I think something--some parts of color also have to do with what color you think something is. That color, I haven't actually looked in I don't know, if it even says on the label what you know, a color away name. I think the label is in Swedish. So I don't know if it says a colorway name. Or often weaving cones just have a color way number. But I wouldn't be surprised if the color name was lilac. And because it was just in a bag with a red and a green. And I can't remember what color it was with. But anyway, the color it was with made me think it was gray. And because I thought it was gray. It looked gray. You know what I mean?  Marsha  31:52   Yeah, yeah. And I think that I'm looking at the gray, red and white. And I think it seems like Christmas colors. So I'm reading it as green because red and green are Christmas colors. I don'tknow. Yeah. Kelly  32:08    It's like once your brain locks on what color you think it is. That's what color you see until something comes along to shock you out of that thinking, like, oh my god, this is purple and orange. Marsha  32:25   Okay, I'm going to look up your picture because you said it's in Ravelry.  Kelly  32:29   Yeah, in the weaving thread. Marsha  32:31   Oh, but here on Instagram, too. Did you post it?  Kelly  32:34   Yeah, I posted an Instagram  But I didn't have much of the weaving done when I posted on Instagram. Ravelry is a better picture, will be on a more recent picture. I don't know if it's better. The more recent picture is on Ravelry. So just an interesting thing, how color works. And how your brain tells you things that aren't really true. Marsha  33:03   Funny, huh? Well, should I talk about my projects and I don't want to interrupt. Are you done? I don't want... Kelly  33:09   No I'm I'm finished. That's enough. You'll hear more about this project. Since it's six towels. It'll be okay. It'll be going for a while. Marsha  33:17   Oh, okay. Well, I have big news. Yeah, I did not finish it between Christmas and New Year's but at the beach I finished Ben's sweater. It is done.  Kelly  33:30   Yay.  Marsha  33:32   Yay. And I will not relive the whole thing. But I did. I think the last episode, I don't remember. I honestly I don't even remember where I was with the whole thing. But I did rip out both sleeves back to the elbow and re knit them with fewer decreases. And I came home from the beach yesterday afternoon. I got home around 4:30 or so. And the first thing I did was wash and block the sweater. Kelly  33:58    Nice.  Marsha  33:59   So it's drying. And I've a few ends to weave in. But I'm calling it done.  Kelly  34:05   Nice.  Marsha  34:05   Yeah. So and it blocked out really nicely. It grew a little bit which is what I wanted. And so I think it's going to be... I'm just glad I'm done. So I'm starting off the new year fresh. So that's all I'm gonna about to say about the sweater. I don't want to talk about it anymore. Done. I'm done. And I will say and a story I will say I finished it at the beach. Now I don't remember now what day it was I finished it and when I bound off this, I finished the first sleeve before I went to the beach and then I finished the second sleeve at the beach and bound off the cuff. And this I was getting like: 10 rows, nine rows, eight rows and seven and getting more and more excited and this huge weight has been lifted off of me by having that done. It's like this is a great way to start the new year. It's done, so I'm excited. So anyway, I worked on my January blanket. And I have knit about 28 inches of it. And I really like it. I think it's turning out really nicely. It feels great. Because it's handspun kind of woolen spun is what I tried. So it has, it's very light. But yeah, it's very nice. And this is really nice yarn. It doesn't. It's a woolly yarn, but it's not harsh at all. It's just super nice. I really like it. Kelly  35:39   It looks really pretty. I like that solid color. I mean,  we've both done so many blankets with you know, colors changing all that. But that is a really nice look  that one solid color with a nice lace pattern. Marsha  35:57   Yeah. And I love the color of this. It's --I never know what to call it. It's sort of Carmel Cafe Au Lait. Yeah. The color of Milk in Tea. I don't know. Kelly  36:11   Yeah, I would say I would say Cafe au Lait  is a good way to describe it. Marsha  36:17   The color of a little brown dog? I don't know. I don't know. Kelly  36:23   It's a little lighter than Orkney. Right? Marsha  36:25   Yeah, yeah. I'll just interject. I remember, I probably have said this before in the podcast, but I worked with a guy who was in a Cajun band. And so he knew a lot about Cajun cooking, because he always would go down to Louisiana. And so I asked him if he had a recipe for gumbo. And you start with a roux, and you cooked the flour and oil together until it was the color of an old hound dog. And I, we worked together and I went up to the receiving area where he worked. And I just on a piece of paper, I wrote down his recipe. And that's what I actually wrote down: cook the roux until it's the color of an old hound dog. So this is like the color of an old hound dog, I guess. Anyway. Anyway, so I'm really enjoying knitting on this. And then, I think, I guess I mentioned in the last episode, because I had it here in the show notes that I bought the Noro Kureyon to make the Noro mania blanket for my brother and I gave it to him for Christmas. And he's thrilled with it. So I'm going to cast that on. You know, as soon as I finish this blanket, I'll start that and do a little figuring about what size I want to make. But my big news is I have a new addition to the the the yarn and  fiber family, which is I bought an electric spinning wheel. Woohoo! and so both Kim and I bought the the it's called the electric eel or the e w 6.0. Technically, from dreaming robots. And I'll talk more about this at a later date. But I we both they arrived in the mail, and we didn't unbox them until we got to the beach and set them up very easy. We watched the tutorial they have on the dreaming robots website. And so we set them up. I should back up and say our inspiration for buying these was our friend Dagmar. She bought one a while ago and she had it at NoCKRs retreat. And I was really interested in it. And when I knew she was going to be meeting us at Black Sheep, I said to Kim, you need to come and check out her spinning wheel, this E spinner because I think because Kim has been adamant she was not going to get a spinning wheel. no, right, just stick with the drop spindle. And I could tell when she was watching Dagmar that she was very interested. So anyway, we had fun. Our four days down there of just playing with the spinning wheels. It was interesting. I had some polworth that I had bought years ago I don't even remember now where I bought it. So I was practicing with that and she also had polworth That was dyed. And so she was practicing with that and it is really interesting to just to spin the same fiber but one's dyed and one's not dyed, how they're different. Because the the technique of dyeing, the roving, it gets a little stuck together kind of. Needs a little bit more pre drafting that has to go on than with an undyed fiber, I think. But they're really, they're great wheels and I think they're really well designed. He's thought of everything. And we also-- it does not come with a battery but you can order a battery that so then it'd be great for...  Kelly, if I go to the trailer rally again, I would actually be able to be easier to transport this to California on a plane or whatever or in the car. And then I don't need to plug in, I can just spin off the battery. So it's going to be great for all kinds of situations. But it is funny, Kim was sitting at the dining room table practicing and I was sitting on the sofa and had the wheel sitting on the coffee table. And underneath the coffee table there was another little shelf and I kept pushing on that shelf with my foot trying just to treadle-- stop the wheel, start the wheel. That was actually amusing to me. I kind of thought wow, this is so nice. I wonder what it's going to be like when I go home and spin on little Herbie. And last night I spun for two hours or so while I watched the news and whatnot. And I love little Herbie. I have not given up my complete love for little Herbie. I love treadling. But this is this is a really nice, it's gonna be great for taking to the beach.  Kelly  41:02   Yeah,  Marsha  41:03   taking to your house, taking to NoCKRs because it's so portable. So I have to thank Dagmar for introducing us to it because it's been great. It's really fun. So I'll report more on it came in, I think gonna get together this weekend to practice a bit more, and I might record a little bit get some of her thoughts, too.  Kelly  41:21   Oh, that'd be cool. Yeah. Marsha  41:23   Yeah, I'll do that. That would be good. I have to say I thought about-- I thought about recording when we were at the beach. But honestly, it was kind of fun just to get lost in it and not have to think about talking about it. Kelly  41:37   Well, you'll have more to talk about once you've been working with it a little bit longer, too. Marsha  41:42   Yeah. It's interesting though, the bobbins. On the website, they say they hold eight ounces of fiber. And so I'm interested to see. I'm spinning up a four ounce skein. And it's, it's about half full. So I'm gonna see if it'll hold the eight ounces. That's, that's a lot. Kelly  42:03   That is a lot. Yeah, it's kind of a double edged sword. It's sort of like ink-- with the fountain pens when you buy ink. So, you know, there are some people who are real big proponents of you know, the ink bottles that come, you know, 50 milliliter, 60 milliliters 80 milliliters, you know, these nice big bottles of ink that you get your money's worth, right?  Marsha  42:32   Right.  Kelly  42:33   The problem with that, or the other side of that double edged sword is that you have all of this ink and then if you want a different color it's hard to justify buying. Well. For some people, it's hard to... for myself, it's hard to justify, I guess, if I were further down this, this rabbit hole, I could have a whole large stash of over 200 inks like some people do. It really ...but it's difficult, it's more difficult to justify buying another bottle of ink in a different color that looks fun and that you want, when you have, you know, 50 60, 70 milliliter bottles of ink that are big. And you don't even use-- I think one time we were talking, I said that it takes like 10 milliliters. It doesn't even take one milliliter to fill most of my pens, I was way off there. So you know, if you're using less than a  milliliter every time you fill your pen, and it takes me a couple of weeks for my pens to run out if I have a couple of pens inked up at the same time. Like not a lot of ink. Right. So so the bobbin.. Marsha  43:50   Yes! Kelly  43:50   Oh, go ahead. Marsha  43:52   Well, I was gonna say if I I'm spinning just a natural colored cream.  Kelly  43:56   Yeah,  Marsha  43:57   yarn or fiber. It's gonna... and eight ounces. That's days of the same thing. You know, so I know what you're saying is you can't... like it's having a smaller bobbin and you get to change a lot. Kelly  44:10   Right? You know, right. And that's part of what I-- that's part of what I like. I mean and you could even spin two eight ounce bobbins if you had 16 ounces. You could spin two eight ounce bobbins and then ply those two together like you could be working on cream colored yarn for what felt like Ben's-- a Ben's sweater worth of time. [laughing] Marsha  44:37   Well, and also Kelly, I'm just going to add this in there too is that I before I went packing for the beach, getting the wheel and getting you know the first thing you pack when you travel is a knitter is all your projects, right? And so I was like what fiber am I going to spin and so I found I had this polworth and me being me, I didn't buy one skein I bought three packages of four skeins each.  four ounces? So how many?  So each package has has four pieces of--hanks of roving, okay, and each one is four ounces so Kelly  45:24   so okay so you have 16 ounces in a bag and you have three bags? Both  45:40   Three bags! [laughing] Marsha  45:42   I'm like that but I do know, I as I say I don't remember where I bought it-- if I bought it at Black Sheep or if I bought it at fiber fusion. I think I bought it at Black Sheep because I don't I don't-- I did not buy it in the marketplace. I remember I bought it from the person with the sheep. Like out in the barn?  Anyway, I bought it and so I bought three bags and there's four skeins in each bag  Kelly  46:05   and it's  all undyed and each is four ounces it's all undyed, natural white.  Marsha  46:12   Yeah, I am. I'm slightly insane. Kelly  46:16   Well, it doesn't all  have to be one project.  Marsha  46:18   Oh, you know me. I always buy a sweater quantity of something. I always buy a big quantity or something. So I don't know what-- I don't know what I was thinking Kelly  46:25   It's a little more than one sweater. Marsha  46:29   Yeah, I know. It's another blanket. Kelly  46:36   Now you're gonna become known as the person who always buys a blanket quantity. Marsha  46:44   Yeah, so I don't know what I'm going to I've just I've I didn't even spin four ounces. Kelly  46:51   It's about like if you bought a fleece and sent it away to be processed. Right? A small fleece and sent it out to be processed.  Marsha  47:01   Yeah, no, I'm just a little insane. Kelly  47:03   I kind of learned my lesson from this six pounds of CVM. Well, I won't say I learned a lesson because I'm pretty sure I didn't. But I do remember being really sick of it by the time I was done, yeah. And I in fact, I found a little scrap of roving from that CVM fleece this summer while I was cleaning up, I found a little bump of it. And I think I ended up putting it. I might have put it in the felting box. But I honestly I might have put it with the stuff that I used to compost. I might have just said you know what? I'm done. I'm totally done with you. And I want this out of my stash. Totally. Not even a little scrap in the felting box. I think I did end up composting it. I mean, it was less than an ounce I think ,but still. Marsha  48:00   Yeah. I mean, I in my defense I have to defend myself just a little bit is that I did buy this early in my spinning life. And when I was in you know new spinners, new knitters, new crocheters, new Weavers, new spinners. anybody new to something, you get all excited about it, and you think you're never going to see any fiber ever again, this is your only chance to buy. And so I yeah, I went a little crazy Kelly  48:27   Well, and you go through it fast. If you're really if you're really spinning, especially when you're a beginner and or if you're making yarn that's thicker, you do go through roving, you can go through roving quickly depending on the, you know, the type of thing you're spinning, but you can go through quite quickly because I remember doing a swap that was 24-- I had to make 24 skeins, each of them two ounces. So that's 48 ounces. So what? That's three pounds, right? So and I remember telling myself at the beginning if I just spin this three pounds, by the time I'm done spinning three pounds of wool, I'll be a good spinner. And, and I cranked through it one summer, you know, just spinning for this. For this swap. It wasn't all the same type of fiber. But I gathered together--basically gathered together three pounds of fiber and and spun it for this for this swap. So you do go through it fast. Yeah, you're a newer spinner and, and I could see why you would think okay, I need more because I'm just a four ounce braid just takes me no time at all. You know. Marsha  49:21   Basically I really love the wheel. I think it's a great investment just for traveling just because there's so many times I've not been able to bring my wheel to visit you because we're to the beach and I have to I'm all engrossed in a project but then I can't take it. Kelly  49:53   That's nice. I'm excited to see it. Marsha  49:55   I have to say we have to finish because my ear pods are failing and the right one is run out of charge. So let's keep moving here before my earbuds fail. Kelly  50:08    Okay,  Marsha  50:10   what else do we have to talk about? Kelly  50:11    Anything else for your projects? Marsha  50:13   Oh, that's it. That's all I have.  Kelly  50:14   Okay, so the only other thing we have to remind our patrons about is the Patreon  giveaway. This is our year-end, thank you to our patrons for their support of our show. And so they should just let me know, email me, email or message me on Ravelry with the pattern of your choice $10 or less, and I will get that pattern out to you. I just want to thank everyone who supports us on Patreon. And if anyone would like to join the Patreon supporters, the link is at the top of our show notes. And it's patreon.com forward slash two ewes and you can become a patron of our show. But yeah, get your get your information to us and we'll get you your pattern choice. Marsha  51:04   Yeah, so thank you. All right. I think that's it, Kelly.  Kelly  51:08   I agree.  Marsha  51:10   I have to go cuz you're fading in the left. You're fading in my left ear now. So okay, I think we talked to we talked too long before we started recording. Kelly  51:19   Right, right. Marsha  51:21   Okay. All right. Well, we'll talk in two weeks. Kelly  51:25    In two weeks. Yeah. Marsha  51:26   All righty. Okay, bye bye. Kelly  51:29   Bye. Thank you so much for listening. To subscribe to the podcast visit Two Ewes Fiber Adventures dot come. Marsha  51:37   Join us on our adventures on Ravelry and Instagram. I am better in motion and Kelly is 1hundred projects. Kelly  51:44   Until next time, we're the Two Ewes doing our part for  world fleece. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

On today's “Busted Open”, hosts Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer cover all the major topics from last night including the excellent promo from Riddle, who seems ready for a main event run.  We've also got analysis on Cody Rhodes' night on Raw and how his story with Seth Rollins is progressing as we head toward “Hell in a Cell”.  And we'll discuss the new #1 contender along with Asuka for the Raw Women's title: Becky Lynch.

Gem has claws, of the nail art variety and so is an expert, der. But what do you do about the shit (literally) that gets under the nail art? Eew. And while the world falls to shit, we've properly lost our minds. Gem had a public shaming (filmed by her mum, lol) in a mall with a screaming toddler and got “saved” by a well meaning onlooker, but did that reward some rubbish behaviour? And are tantrums modern? Or are they a tale as old as time? Then Revz is battling a weird new fear she cannot shake but absolutely needs to before she becomes #triathlon #fitspo very shortly. Then Gem has a bloody ripper of a #notspon and Revz can save you thousands on therapy.

Eew. But seriously, don't.

Får Anna mer lønn? / PROBLEMER: Hvordan lage en fin jul for ungene, når man selv ikke er så opptatt av sånt? / Fakk beskjedenhet / Komfort eller stilig!? / Når en kollega har bæsjet / Alt for mange alkoholmuligheter / Jeg har skjemt bort hele gjengen / Eew, eksen min tissa på seg i senga mi!! / Hva gir man som voksen til besteforeldre? / Hår OVER alt! / EPILOG: 1t 48min. Hør episoden i appen NRK Radio

Crank the Angels & Airwaves and blast off to the I.S.S. with El Pinchito and the Shaman as they riff on this month's movie: Love! Full disclosure, though - this is actually Pinchy's TED Talk on the genius of Blink 182 front man Tom DeLonge, because none other than DeLonge funded this film, and he's got his fingers in many different multimedia pies. Eew! Not literal pies. Anyway, get ready for an education on low budget indie filmmaking and U.A.P.s! GRAB YOUR TOM DEBONG! HIT PLAY NOW! DON'T WAIT TOO DELONGE! Love (2011) Director: William Eubank Writer: William Eubank Starring: Gunner Wright   Note: Please partake legally and responsibly!

You know the age-old story - what do you do when you lose your job unexpectedly? How do you survive? How do you make it? How do you do the thing that only you can do so well?What's In Store For YouOur guest's first job was a busboy at the Big Yellow House Restaurant in Southern California. He was also a five-day returning champion on the $25,000 Pyramid game show. After multiple instances where he was impacted by business restructuring, he reinvented himself and moved into entrepreneurship. Since then he has authored 12 books on the power of business relationships, presentation skills, sales, networking, entrepreneurship. He speaks to corporate, law firm, and convention audiences. He's also the host of the popular podcast "Making Waves at C-level".Let's find out how Thom Singer has managed to turn his job loss experiences into golden opportunities towards entrepreneurship.[04:06] What was the first business lesson that he learned in his first job as a busboy at the Big Yellow House restaurant?[05:26] Two more major business lessons he learned to take note of![07:25] Thom walks us through his $25,000 dollar pyramid experience as a five-time champion (WOW).[08:41] Thom takes us through his next experience of losing his job in the corporate world.[10:24] Did it ever occur to Thom that he could be an entrepreneur instead of being an employee during that period?[11:57] Is there anything Thom can share on how people can set up a negotiation in order to move to their next career step?[15:36] What eventually nudged Thom to move on from corporate America into entrepreneurship?[17:23] Getting laid off on April 1st (April Fools); what was running through Thom's mind as this happened?[18:19] What came to Thom's mind as the next logical step to take after that final job restructuring?[20:47] What are a few steps to take and develop for someone who does not have a marketing background and wanted to become a solopreneur?[22:23] Is there anything they can lean on to make a transition from "Eew, icky" to "I've got to do this" regarding self-marketing.[23:45] How did he begin to do a podcast? What was in his mind to start the podcast to effectively brand himself?[25:24] Biggest piece of advice that Thom would like to share with people who want to take a leap into the unknown.RESOURCESKomposition LLC - Whether you need web work done, graphic design, live streaming help, or you just need to figure out how to get better on video online, get help from the experts! Check them out and get your brand on point.Text 410-936-4049 and be a part of Robert's community.Support the show, buy Robert a coffee!Storytellers Growth Lab - get guidance about how you can CONFIDENTLY CONNECT, PRESENT POWERFULLY & ENGAGE EFFECTIVELY!Thom Singer's websiteMaking Waves At C-Level podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The shuttlepod comes in, like a wrecking ball, starts the show with a bang, and even though it's a setup, Starfleet shows us how they did cancel culture back in the day. Daniels returns to show Archer all of the cheat codes, and he does the Time Warp Again. It's just a jump to the left...Also: dick pics. -Brought to you by Section 31- 00:00 Episode 79 01:00 https://patreon.com/starfleetunderground 01:12 Non-Corporal Captain? 02:00 Tribbles on a leash 02:20 Eew! 03:00 Manly gripping cheeks 03:30 One Correction 03:55 Not Kid Friendly 04:16 Michelle Yeoh in Witcher Prequel - https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/6/22565149/michelle-yeoh-netflix-the-witcher-blood-origin-sword-elves 06:05 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home coming back to theaters - https://trekmovie.com/2021/07/08/star-trek-iv-the-voyage-home-returns-to-theaters-in-august-for-2-nights-tickets-available-now/ 06:47 Double Dumbass, bitch! 07:00 Star Trek at Comicon@home - https://www.youtube.com/user/ComicCon 08:00 Bathrobe and Tribble Slippers 08:18 Grudge's Book - https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Discovery-Grudge-Books/dp/1801260478 09:30 Med Kit? https://www.factoryent.com/Star-Trek-The-Next-Generation-Medical-Set-p/408677.htm 10:30 Star Trek Movies - https://trekmovie.com/2021/07/07/paramount-releasing-star-trek-tos-movies-4k-uhd-blu-ray-set/ 11:50 OK, Boomer 12:30 Star Trek: Enterprise - "Shockwave Part 1" 12:47 Teaser - "My Bad" 13:20 Starting off with a Bang! 14:00 A "Trek" episode? 14:40 Women?! 15:00 Ready to send Dick Pics? 15:30 Women don't want to see that 16:30 Denobulan Viagra 17:00 Making History Every Lightyear 17:50 Act I - "Clusterfuck of a Day" 18:30 Cancel Culture 18:50 "Ah, to be Vulcan" 19:49 I feel guilty 20:30 You Followed Protocol 21:10 Scrolling 3600 pics 21:30 Not wanting to fight? 21:44 Hard Blow to Archer 22:10 If only they brought Porthos! 22:50 Lot of Logs 23:30 Most Famous Boomer 23:51 Act II - "Spooning Surprise" 25:15 Depressed Archer 26:14 Magic Light Switch 26:54 It's Almost like Groundhog Day 27:15 Just say Temporal Cold War 27:56 T'Pol Steps Up 29:35 The Captain's Magic Underwear 30:17 Archer gets all the cheat codes 31:10 Act III - "Star Trek Street Cred" 31:37 Skedaddle 32:30 Don't believe in Time Travel 33:00 Trusting Daniels? 34:20 Send all the Senior Officers...Again! 34:49 Stun Grenade or RAID! 35:20 Playing Doom 35:39 Suliban CDs vs USB? 36:25 Reed has experience now 36:35 The Clamp 37:41 God Mode was ON! 38:00 Act IV - "Time Trap" 38:45 Cheat Code without saving 39:20 Mothballs of Death 40:05 Never get into a Turbolift alone 40:12 The Hero Thing 40:40 When You Fart in the Middle of Time Travel 41:05 Don't Stifle a Fart 42:00 Cliffhanger 43:00 Suliban Five Minutes 44:30 How do they get out of this? 45:05 Did that Tribble just call me an Asshole? 46:10 Heather's Score and Season 1 Recap 49:00 When Hoshi gets her confidence back 50:30 NO DICK PICS! Next Week - Star Trek: Enterprise - "Shockwave Part 2" - Thanks for listening! Now on Patreon! https://patreon.com/starfleetunderground Email: thecollective@starfleetunderground.com Website: https://starfleetunderground.com Twitter: twitter.com/StarfleetUnderG Instagram: instagram.com/starfleetunderground Facebook: facebook.com/starfleetunderground YouTube: www.youtube.com/Qtsy16 Explicit

On tonight's LCAD Laura fills us in on her Buy Nothing Haul of the Week. We draw the line when she tells us that she picked up a half-used bottle of shampoo! Eew!  Someone get this woman some help...stat! A creepy old man hits on Linda outside of a store and makes that growling sound. Gross! The rest of the hour has Erik serving up some extra juicy Daily Dirt (Double D) including some behind the scenes gossip about the Housewives. You don't wanna miss this one. Thank you for your support. Contact us anytime at lauracainad@gmail.com.Love your podcast!

Fabienne de Vries ging tijdens een speciale uitzending op New Business Radio in gesprek met Werner Schouten, Ad Lansink en Rutger Jan Pessers over de bijdrage van de afvalsector aan de klimaatdoelen. Tijdens deze uur durende special gingen de drie gasten met elkaar in debat over verschillende stellingen, waarbij elke gast één stelling inbracht. Te gast waren: Werner Schouten, Chairman van de Jonge Klimaatbeweging. Hij verenigt de stem van 72 jongerenorganisaties door het organiseren van klimaatdialogen. Hij probeert op basis van de Jonge Klimaatagenda, beleid te beïnvloeden via campagnes en gesprekken met politici, beleidsmakers en bedrijfsleven. Ad Lansink, voormalig CDA Tweede Kamerlid. Hij stond met de 'Ladder van Lansink' in 1979 aan de wieg van het denken over de circulaire economie in Nederland. Hiermee rangschikt hij methodes van afvalverwerking op milieuvriendelijkheid. Zijn boek 'Challenging Changes' wordt gezien als de kroon op zijn werk. Rutger Jan Pessers, directeur van ARN BV. Hij is namens afvalenergiecentrale ARN BV één van de vier deelnemers van De Afvalvergroeners, een AEC-coalitie van ARN, Attero, AVR en EEW. Hij schreef namens dit initiatief mee aan het 'Alternatief plan AEC-coalitie importheffing', met concrete maatregelen hoe AEC’s bijdragen aan de beoogde 0,2 megaton reductie van CO2-uitstoot. Het programma is terug te luisteren als podcast via alle bekende podcast platforms (onder meer Apple Podcasts en Spotify).

1. move in with sb 与某人同居 Gary觉得和菲比的感情发展很顺利于是说I am gonna ask Phoebe to move in with me. Move in with sb 与某人同居, big step for a relationship. Monica: So it looks like it's going really well for you two, huh?Gary: I know, really well. In fact, I'm gonna ask Phoebe to move in with me.Monica: (shocked) Oh my God!Gary: What do you, what do you think?Monica: I think that is so great! When are you gonna ask her?Gary: Tonight, but don't say anything. Okay?Monica: I swear, I promise. I promise. Oh my God, I'm so excited! {And I just can't hide it! I'm about to lose control and I think I like it! Sorry, just couldn't resist it.} All right, listen let me tell you, do not get her flowers. Okay? Because y'know, she cries when they die, and there's the whole funeral…Gary: (To Phoebe) I'll see you after work sweetie. (Kisses her.)Phoebe: Okay. Bye!2. jinx 乌鸦嘴 几个人在玩投球的时候，谈到投球的时间，Joey说I don't want to jinx it. Jinx当名词指的是不祥的人或物。当动词讲是给某人或事带来厄运，倒霉。这样的人也可以说是乌鸦嘴。Joey: Hey, what time is it?Ross: (looks at his watch) 2:17.Joey: Wow! You realize that we've been throwing this ball, without dropping it, for like an hour?Ross: Are you serious?!Joey: Yeah. I realized it about a half-hour ago but I didn't want to say anything 'cause I didn't want to jinx it.Ross: Wow! We are pretty good at this! Hey! We totally forgot about lunch!Joey: Oh, I-I, I think that's the first time I ever missed a meal! (Checks his pants.) Yeah, my pants are a little loose!3. 美国红星 Shaun Cassidy Rachel说带来了一个从小就喜欢的东西。Ross问是不是Shaun Cassidy. 此君是美国影视歌加上写作四栖明星，年轻时红透美国，青少年偶像。现在已是大叔，专心从事剧本创作。Rachel: (entering) Hey, you guys…Joey: Hey!Rachel: Is Monica here?Joey and Ross: No.Rachel: All right listen umm, I just bought something I'm not sure she's gonna like it, and it's gonna seem a little crazy, but this is something that I wanted since I was a little girl.Ross: You bought Shawn Cassidy!Rachel: Noo! I wish! Okay, you ready?Joey and Ross: Yeah!4. Sphinx Cat 斯芬克斯猫 Rachel拿来一只猫叫做Sphinx Cat 斯芬克斯猫，俗称加拿大无毛猫，专门为对猫毛过敏的爱猫人士特地养殖的，比较罕见，被称为世界上最丑的动物之一，所以Ross和Joey不认为这是只猫。Ross: What-what is it?!Joey: What the hell is that?!!Rachel: It's a, it's a cat!Joey: That, is not a cat! {I have to agree with Joey on this one.}Rachel: Yes it is!Ross: Why is it inside out?!Rachel: Excuse me! But this is a purebred, show-quality Sphinx cat!5. good for nothing 一无是处 Chandler没能完成菲比交给他的任务，菲比说他是Good for nothing. good for nothing = useless，一无是处的。也可以当做名词来用,无用之人，没用的东西。Chandler: Hi!Phoebe: Hmm, did you talk to Gary about the moving in thing?Chandler: Yes I did, and I think you should do it.Phoebe: What?!Chandler: He's a great guy, y'know? And he loves you a lot, you are a very lucky lady.Phoebe: You are useless! Freaking out about commitment is the one thing you can do! The one thing! And you can't even do that right! God!Chandler: I'm sorry. (Pause) If you ask me, I'd move in with him.Phoebe: Ohh!! God! Ooh! (To Chandler) Get out of here, good for nothing.6. show cat 纯种猫 Rachel在卖猫的时候叫卖Show cat. Show cat指的是经过认证的纯种猫，是可以参加名猫博览会的猫。这种猫经过认证后体内会植入microchip芯片，不是想山寨就可以山寨的。Rachel:Show cat! Quality show cat! Show cat! (A woman approaches.)Woman No. 1: (looks into the box) Oh my God! What's wrong with your baby?!Rachel: It's not a baby! It's a cat!Woman No. 1: Eew! It's creepy looking!Rachel: Oh no! No! It's actually—it's very sweet. It's very sweet. Look! (Goes to pet it and it hisses at her.) Yeah, do you want it?Woman No. 1: (laughs) No, I hate cats.Rachel: Well, so then what are you doing to me? Okay? Just get out of here! All right? Move on!7. haggle 讨价还价 Rachel卖猫的时候对潜在的买猫客户说You know how to haggle. Haggle在这里等于bargain. 砍价，讨价还价。Woman No. 2: Wow! What an unusual cat!Rachel: Yes! Thank you! Exactly! You want it?Woman No. 2: Maybe. I was thinking about getting a cat, I was just going to go to the shelter (Good for her) but… Okay, why not?Rachel: Oh, terrific! That'll be $2,000.Woman No. 2: What?!Rachel: Okay, a thousand.Woman No. 2: I thought you wanted to adopt your cat.Rachel: Well, I do, but you're just gonna have to actually look at this as more of an investment than a cat.Woman No. 2: Okay, yeah, I just wanted a cat. Rachel: Obviously you know how to haggle, so I'm not gonna try and take you on. Okay? So $800 and I don't call the cops because you're robbing me blind! Blind! Just take cat, leave the money, and run away! Run away! Damnit!

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In this episode: Does it sometimes feel as if you're one mini-crisis from capsizing? These are days where people feel overwhelmed by the level of stress that has become part of everyday life. What do we do with the overwhelm? In this podcast episode, I talk about how we can be aware and give ourselves and others more grace in difficult times. (Article contains affiliate links. This means that when you click a link and make a purchase, I might receive a small commission from that purchase.) Inspired Life It's too much. I've thought this often in the past couple of weeks. Months. This year. May I just do a short rant here? If I see another meme about if 2020 were a song, or if 2020 were a menu item. Or if one more person asks if we can press the reset button on 2020. Did anyone have 2020 vision about this when they made that their New Year's slogan? Ok. Rant done. Now, let's talk about what the last week or two has brought into my brain: There are fires in California, and I have loved ones there. COVID-19 broke more records for positive numbers, and that's a negative thing. There has been another shooting of a black, unarmed man. There are two hurricanes hitting the southern coast at the same time. There is bickering on social media and someone's comments cut to the core of my identity, threatening my sense of belonging in the fellowship of Christians. Several friends are either sick with COVID or have lost loved ones to it this week. Need I say more? A Christian leader has been forced to resign because of misconduct. A family member had a serious accident. And pumpkin spice coffee is back at Starbucks. Eew. Ok. I had to on the last one. But seriously, that's a normal week lately. It's just plain overwhelming. I'm feeling out of my mind! Maybe you've felt it too. I'm finding myself feeling kind of numb. Like I don't know how to have appropriate emotions anymore. And I wonder what's happening. I think it's overwhelm. I'm at the top edge of full when it comes to bad news. The waves have come up to the edge of the rim of the boat, and now the littlest stress makes me act like I would if the ship were going down. Except it isn't. So let's talk about that. @import url(https://michellerayburn.com/wp-content/plugins/siteorigin-panels/css/front-flex.min.css); #pgc-w5f47b877a73cd-0-0 { width:100%;width:calc(100% - ( 0 * 40px ) ) } #pg-w5f47b877a73cd-0 , #pl-w5f47b877a73cd .so-panel , #pl-w5f47b877a73cd .so-panel:last-child { margin-bottom:0px } #pg-w5f47b877a73cd-0.panel-no-style, #pg-w5f47b877a73cd-0.panel-has-style > .panel-row-style { -webkit-align-items:flex-start;align-items:flex-start } #panel-w5f47b877a73cd-0-0-0> .panel-widget-style { padding:0px 20px 0px 20px } @media (max-width:780px){ #pg-w5f47b877a73cd-0.panel-no-style, #pg-w5f47b877a73cd-0.panel-has-style > .panel-row-style { -webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column } #pg-w5f47b877a73cd-0 > .panel-grid-cell , #pg-w5f47b877a73cd-0 > .panel-row-style > .panel-grid-cell { width:100%;margin-right:0 } #pl-w5f47b877a73cd .panel-grid-cell { padding:0 } #pl-w5f47b877a73cd .panel-grid .panel-grid-cell-empty { display:none } #pl-w5f47b877a73cd .panel-grid .panel-grid-cell-mobile-last { margin-bottom:0px } #panel-w5f47b877a73cd-0-0-0> .panel-widget-style { padding:10px 10px 10px 10px } } Life, Repurposed Are you like me and have had the fight or flight feelings way to easily lately? I hear you. Let's talk about what needs to happen to restore sanity. Acknowledge it. If I'm not aware that my boat feels at risk, then it's going to blindside me when a tiny wave hits. I'm aware that my emotions are high. Then what? Release it. I know I'm going to overreact when life feels that way. I don't want to, but I do. I did it just today and reacted inappropriately to a stressor. We will each need to know what helps us to deescalate when we feel that way. We have to have a pressure release valve. A walk? A deep breath?

Echo Echo Whisky is a Flash Brief dedicated to educating listeners and Ending Endless Wars. Welcome, today we are particularly focused on Afghanistan. EEW, a Flash Briefing on Ending Endless Wars. This is a copyrighted production -- 2020 Concerned Veterans for America.

Eew wee, indeed. Today’s episode is about natto or fermented soybeans! Get some more smelly, slimy, and stringy info here!

Oh, the HORRORS of camping. Awkward sex, bloody clumps of fur, engagement rings... Eew. WILLOW CREEK, KIDS! Bigfoot, ahoy.

Oh, the HORRORS of camping. Awkward sex, bloody clumps of fur, engagement rings... Eew. WILLOW CREEK, KIDS! Bigfoot, ahoy.

Warning: This podcast has a lot to do with death and planning for death as it pertains to finances. Very sensitive subject. Today's podcast was brought on by some personal loss. I lost my Grandmother 3 days ago, and a Great Uncle a couple weeks ago. I discuss how an observation in my grandmother's house the final time I saw her brought on memories of how my former company, Bank of America handled deceased customers account. Learn how the phrase "Eew" is apropos for their Enterprise Estate Unit (EEU) which handles their deceased clients accounts. I share stories of customers I lost, and using those stories as examples for what you should do if you are preparing for end of life, or having a family member prepare for it. THERE ARE 2 VERY IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS TO HEAR IN THIS PODCAST!!!! Learn how Bank of America held $29 for several months because my client chose to accidentally die in another state, and learn how Bank of America asked for a 40 year old death certificate from a person that was never technically their client. This was a tough podcast, but I think you should learn something. Our podcast today is brought to by our friends at KASASA! Visit KASASA.com for information about a bank in your area that has Kasasa checking, which is free checking where you can earn rewards. Learn more about their awesome products on their website. You won't go wrong! :) 575-322-4127 is our voicemail line to share your bad banking experience. 3 min limit. ONE PENNY IS DONATED TO CHARITY FOR EVERY PODCAST PLAY!!! CLICK AWAY!!! Our website www.whyyourbanksucks.com for more info on our podcast, store, sponsorship info and much more! Visit our Twitter Page @bankscrewedus - Running commentary with BofA clients and VIGILANTE CUSTOMER SERVICE & Host James B on Twitter @jamesbisright. Books Coming Soon: "The Banker Dude Presents: Beer Money: Banking and Financial Tips for Today's Modern Man" "Bank of America Nearly Made Me Homeless (And I Worked There)" Status plus my Complaints book, "The Bank Screwed US" ALL PROJECTS WILL HAVE A PORTION OF PROCEEDS DONATED TO CHARITY. VISIT http://www.whyyourbanksucks.com/charity for more. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The word mag’il in Hebrew means disgusting. And even though we're keeping it clean on the podcast, the topic of disgust might not be for everyone. That said, knowing how to say eeew gross in Hebrew is critical! We think you'll be fine as long as you're not eating lunch. Listen to the All-Hebrew Version of this Episode   New Words and Expressions: Achil - Edible - אכיל Mag’il - Disgusting - מגעיל Ze mag’il oti - It disgusts me - זה מגעיל אותי Go’al nefesh - Disgusting - גועל נפש “Roletat go’al nefesh” - “Disgusting roulette” - רולטת גועל נפש Go’al nefesh shel ben adam/anashim - Disgusting person/people - גועל נפש של בנאדם/אנשים Go’ali - Revolting - גועלי Doche, docha - Repulsive - דוחה Kshe-anachnu nig’alim mi-mashehu - When we are disgusted by something - כשאנחנו נגעלים ממשהו Lehigael mi-mashehu - To be disgusted by something - להיגעל ממשהו Lehag’il mishehu - To disgust someone - להגעיל מישהו Ichs, ichsa, ich - Eww - איכס, איכסה, איך If/ichs/ich eize re’ach - Eew, what a smell - איף/איכס/איך איזה ריח Dai, ya mag’il - Stop it, you’re disgusting - די, יא מגעיל Dai, ya doche/docha - Stop it, you’re disgusting - די, יא דוחה   Playlist and Clips: Achil o mag’il Rouletat go’al nefesh Tochnit “Docha” - Educational TV Ichs - Reality Show Poliana Frank - Ziva (lyrics) For advanced listeners (stand-up comedy)

Works in progress Jenny Fangtastic socks by Wendy Gaal with the Knitters Brewing Company kit Zigzagular Socks by Susie White aka Prairie Girl Knits Master Knitter (Mentioned #fibermcgyver) Weezie Master Knitter Portwenn Socks Cait Dodson Socks test knit for Caitlin Griffin in Madelinetosh Tosh Sock Be a Deer C2C Afghan by Jess Coppom in Cascade Cherub Aran Ubuntu Scheepjes CAL 2018 by Dedri Uys  Stjärna by Karolina Eckerdal with handspun scraps (Mentioned Hunter Hammersen) Plotting & Scheming Jenny Super secret shawl Weezie Drew sweater Working my way through Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman (Mentioned Barbara Walker) Cait More tiny stars Ta da!! Jenny Loch Hat by tincanknits with 2-ply from Ewethful Fiber Farm Revenge of the Knits Jenny Loch hat too big Oooh, Shiny! Weezie BELIEVE WOMEN by Jessica Spiegel Rustle (Adult) by Caitlin Shepherd Get Along Sock MKAL by Michelle Leanne Martin A Herd of DemoDogs Socks by Leona Chan The Dragon Shawl by Alex Mikkelborg Sexy Turkey Hat by Angela Catirina (Mentioned Sock Knitters Anonymous, Solid Socks, #woolsocksoftheday) Cait Emerson the Fox by Rachel Borello Carroll Happy Little Tree Blanket by Rachele Carmona Looked through all the back issues of Twist Collective (Mentioned Marnie MacLean) Jenny Treelight by Jennifer Steingass Black Sheep, White Sheep by Susan B. Anderson Lil' Pumpkin by Rosie Posie Baby Knits Bonehat by Gerrit Rijken (Tundra Toucan) and Noeska Smit Maple Leaf Knit Shawl by Natalia @ Elfmoda (Mentioned the Deathflake chart by Art Fiend, A Garden to Dye For by Chris McLaughlin, A Dyer's Garden by Rita Buchanan) Fluff n Stuff Weezie Found the EEW mini! Jenny Spun Finn and Falkland from the Frabjous Fibers Six Sheep Sampler Plyed mike and sully Plyed cormo Spin the Bin Cait I guess it’s spinzilla Plans for a handspun Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig In the Deep End Shopping online for yarn Some major retailers (Webs, Knit Picks, Jimmy Beans Wool, Eat Sleep Knit, also indie dyers & Etsy) Check Demon Trolls group Juried fiber festival vendor lists Ask your friends, check Ravelry reviews! (Mentioned Madelinetosh, Miss Babs, Leading Men Fiber Arts, Perfect Stitch Fiber Co.) Events/News Wool Festival, Falmouth, KY October 5-7 Southern Indiana Fiber Festival, Corydon, IN October **19 & 20** Hedera Fiber Festival, New Albany, IN November 10 & 11

  Work in progress Jenny Ginny's Cardigan by Mari Chiba from the unofficial harry potter knits special issue of interweave  zigzagular socks by prairie girl susie Weezie Pinwheel Blanket by Kelly van Niekerk Cait Midori test knit socks for Linda Lehman in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Dodson Socks test knit by Caitlin Griffin in Madelinetosh Tosh Sock Knitted Starghan by Stephanie Castro Plotting & Scheming Jenny Loch hat by TinCanKnits Fangtastic socks by Wendy Gaal Cait Constellate by Hunter Hammersen w/handspun for Liam Crochet earwarmer test for Olde Thyme Yarns Weezie All the GAL blankets (Mentioned Tania Richter) Ta da!! Jenny Shortie socks! cormo sample (Mentioned Fleegle Heel) Cait Lizard Ridge Dishcloth by Laura Aylor in Sugar & Cream cotton Oooh, Shiny! Weezie Ixchel by Catherine Clark from Pom Pom Jenny Cabled headbands, particularly Celtic Headband by Juliana Lustenader Bowie shawl by Linnea Ornstein Castiel shawl by Marnie MacLean Imaginary Internet Points Jenny Gryffindor! Cait Ravenclaw! (Mentioned the pretty little stars Hunter Hammersen has been working on) Weezie Ravenclaw! Fluff n Stuff Cait La Vuelta de Espana (La Vuelta de Lana) spinning longdraw gradient... not enough yardage! (Mentioned Celestarium by Audry Nicklin, Hitofude Cardigan by Hiroko Fukatsu, Club Marvel-us from Essential Fiber, Aunt Lydia's Crochet Cotton) Jenny Traveling with the EEW! Southern cross fibers february club Targhee sample In the Deep End Lincoln Longwool very large, can grow up to 300lbs very long staple length, 7-14"  coarse, but very durable so shiny 12lb fleece! white white white with some other colors that are recognized separately including shades of gray up to true black and possibly moorit lockspinning conservation breed (Mentioned Wampa Stomp Farm & The Woolery) Events/News Wool Festival, Falmouth, KY October 5-7 Southern Indiana Fiber Festival, Corydon, IN October 20 & 21 Hedera Fiber Festival, New Albany, IN November 10&11 Our apologies for the fussy baby crying in the background towards the end, baby dude is not liking this whole sleep thing right now.

  Work in progress Jenny Ginny's Cardigan by Mari Chiba from the unofficial harry potter knits special issue of interweave  zigzagular socks by prairie girl susie (Mentioned Master Knitters program, Windfall by Melissa Kemmerer, and the Knitmore Girls podcast) Weezie Pinwheel Blanket by Kelly van Niekerk secret test knit for Melissa Kemmerer (Mentioned the White Stripes, of course) Cait Curious (Socks of Wonderland by Lisa Ross) in Hedgehog Fibres Twist Sock Midori test knit socks for Linda Lehman in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Dodson Socks test knit by Caitlin Griffin in Madelinetosh Tosh Sock Knitted Starghan by Stephanie Castro Plotting & Scheming Jenny Anniversary socks (Mentioned Smart Wool socks) Weezie All the Tania Richter RPG MKALs (Mentioned Lucy Neatby and Knit Companion) Cait Craft room Ta da!! Jenny Shetland spinning on the Electric Eel Wheel Mini (Mentioned the Irish tension hack for the Mini) Revenge of the Knits / 99 Problems and a Stitch Ain't One Jenny Broken cable on the ginny sweater :-( on vacation. and didn’t have an extra Imaginary Internet Points Cait HPKCHC break month Weezie two classes turned in Jenny Mini skeins spinning means i got three classes! Fluff n Stuff Cait Tour de Fleece is over, boo. Weezie CampSpin15, Cabin BFL (Mentioned 1764Shepherdess, an article from Independent Stitch in 2009 about grey Suffolk) Jenny Spinning and plying on the EEW mini, finished the shetland samples, started the cormo and omg i love cormo! Started the mike and sully braid (Mentioned Abby Franquemont, The Device & the Doodad) In the Deep End Gift Knitting (Mentioned The Principles of Knitting by June Hemmons Hiatt) Events/News Kentucky State Fair - we will be there the 22nd at the Textiles booth! Wool Festival, Falmouth, KY, October 5-7 Southern Indiana Fiber Festival, Corydon, IN, October 20 & 21          

Spring Sprung?, Drag Race, 13.5, Very Interesting, EEW!!!, Strangest Review, Shangela, What did you get?, What the F*** is Wrong With Us?

Spring Sprung?, Drag Race, 13.5, Very Interesting, EEW!!!, Strangest Review, Shangela, What did you get?, What the F*** is Wrong With Us?

EvilJeff is back from his axe fight injury. Brett has something to say about these recent Marvel Netflix series. Warning: this episode has the worst "EEW" from a DC book in CBQ history. 

This week Brett and EvilJeff spill some comic news. A teeny bit more Twin Peaks. Eew. Some DC books, and go head to head with lines from "Clue".

    This is Episode 27 and today’s is Earthquake Early Warning Deputy Director of Planning, Preparedness and Prevention, Tina Curry talks about Earthquake Early Warning. As the Deputy Director of Planning, Preparedness and Prevention, Tina Curry oversees the Cal OES Earthquake and Tsunami program. The Cal OES Planning and Preparedness Branch develops and maintains state-level emergency plans and guidance that engage the whole community by using an all-hazards planning process that represents the actual stakeholders from the community, both local and state government leaders, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector. This branch also includes the Earthquake Early Warning Division and Tina explains in this episode the benefits EEW will bring to the state. She also describes where we are in the process of having a functional system, how much it will cost, and how warnings will be delivered to the public. Links Cal OES Planning & Preparedness Cal OES Earthquake Early Warning Legislation California Earthquake Early Warning System Cal OES Earthquake Program USGS: Latest Earthquakes Earthquake Early Warning