@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Even then, it will be too hot.

@Sudhir It's sunny.

So it is warmer inside.

@Cerberus:It'd problem for you.

@Cerberus 35 is too hot, I admit. But I'd still rather 35 than 16 at this time of year.

It's 24.5 inside, which is still OK.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Crazy!

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇: Here Temp crosses 45 mark.

@Cerberus: you use A.C?

@Sudhir yeah that's pretty insane.

@Sudhir Alas, no. Nobody has AC here.

@Sudhir I'm so sorry to hear that.

@KitFox The funny thing is, I came -> <- this close to hiring a landscaper this year. But they wanted $100,000.

What!?

Unfortunately here there is no home where there is no AC.

You can get new floors for that and then some.

@KitFox It was a pretty big job. But I was like "um. what."

@KitFox tell me about it. I got new floors and then some and it was only like $10,000

I was expecting them to come back with a plan that would cost $70,000 and we'd scale it back from there. Instead it was 50% over "budget" and the budget wasn't even a real budget, more like a pie-in-the-sky dream.

Needless to say I don't have $70,000 lying around for landscaping let alone $100,000, so pfft.

The ivy gains a reprieve.

You build on ledge or something?

No. But it's a fairly large property and there's a lot that needs doing.

But they went a little crazy with the planting and stuff.

Also the work includes a new driveway and front step, both of which are expensive and require work crews and machinery. And a new sprinkler system, and etc etc. Lots of stuff. But if we go ahead with this project, we'll be paying for it for years and be unable to do any inside work.

And my in-laws were planning to move in with us so we might have to tear down and rebuild part of the house to make it larger. ... SO that is a lot of work and needs doing before we do the reno.

Oh. Well, that estimate is looking more and more reasonable.

@Cerberus: Dhoni is one of the captains who is/are always cool.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 And before you do any landscaping.

It's not completely unreasonable. But maybe, 80% unreasonable.

@KitFox yeah that's what I mean, landscaping, not reno. I think of it as "outdoor reno"

But honestly I don't know how we're going to pay for $100,000 in landscaping. That's just way too much.

And here I was thinking about how much sumac bushes cost.

Yeah. Stuff's expensive.

@Cerberus: plss tell.

The thing is, now that we have a plan for doing the outdoor work, we have to execute the plan or else forever defer it. But it's not the kind of plan that breaks down into stages well.

If it were a 10 year plan it wouldn't be so bad.

Yeah, that's true. But groundwork. Eep.

yeah there's at least some digging to do in the back yard. And TONS of digging for the front. PLUS we want to replace the water supply line to improve the water pressure, which requires a lot of digging.

But the front step is decaying more and more and I think next year we HAVE to repair it, so... ugh. Just typing all this is giving me a headache.

Well, maybe just do the front step first?

@Sudhir Depends on what you mean.

Then the driveway, and the year after the water supply.

pls elaborate

Are all the captains cool, and is Dhoni one of them? Then are.

Is Dhoni one of the captains and is he also cool, but are not all the captains cool? Then is.

When is?

Oh I see.

@KitFox The problem is the front step is on top of the water supply line. So to do the supply line we have to dig up the whole yard and the front step. Also the front lawn really did die last summer, like my story says, and so now is all weeds. So it needs re-sodding. So the whole front yard needs doing all at once. At least $40k of work.

But I would advise against the is construction.

Either use the are construction ( Dhoni is one of the captains who are always cool ) or recast the sentence, like Dhoni is one of the captains, and he's always cool.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 OK then, the step and the water supply, but wait to resod until the next summer.

@KitFox yeah. I think the whole thing is going to wait until next summer. And it will be front yard first. For the back yard we may just go with a less aggressive plan and cheaper contractor.

But you know how it is. I want it all, and I want it now.

So very you.

The average house in Amsterdam is 74 m².

Unfortunately my boss hasn't seen fit to increase my salary by 50% like I asked.

How unkind and unreasonable of him.

Jerk.

Does he ever consider the feelings of other people?

No. The whole weekend he's been like "work harder! get the database back up! How come the entire site is down? Don't sleep!" and I'm like "what about my feelings? Look at this ivy!"

Exactly! I mean, it was only the entire site anyway.

I'm confused.

@Sudhir c.

Oh.

Hang normally has hung as its past form, except when it means "kill by hanging".

Oh i see.

The dog, he shall na keep it lang,
To flinch we'll make him fain again;
We'll hing him hie upon a tree,
And James shall have his ain again.

And I think to death is more or less a fixed expression, as in sentenced to death, scared to death, etc.

Till death seems to be an Indianism.

I see it in Indian publications.

Was hanged by the neck until dead.

Or was sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead.

@Cerberus: Previously it was used. Now its obsolete.

@KitFox That evokes a...process.

@Cerberus Very common in legal pronouncements.

Not the mere fact of a punishment.

@Sudhir Okay.

You can't hang someone by the neck to death.

@KitFox Yes, but it describes the process.

oh i see

All such mimblemisms are hereby proscribed on pain of death.

Yeah, there are many different expressions.

I was just trying to explain that the reason for "to death" in "hanged to death" is one of idiom, not regularity.

I.e. not something that can be easily described based on a rule.

Oh. Is that what you were doing?

What did you think I was doing?

Composing poetry.

Why don't you explain to Sudhir why it's to, then.

Is it?

I thought you said it wasn't.

I think Cerb was saying that you can't use it except in constructions like verb to death.

So "hanged to death" but not "hanged by the neck to death"

but even "hanged to death" sounds odd to me.

Strangled to death. Starved to death. Loved him to death.

driven to death, typed to death, trampled to death, talked to death.

Hanged to death sounds weird to me too.

Rereredundant.

Not necessarily.

Ok, hanged until half-dead then.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I suppose it is pleonastic.

Hang 'Em High.

Then castrated, drawn, and quartered.

I think it IS the redundancy. You typically don't hang until something other than death. And then you'd use "until". So you never hear "hanged to death"

Like Buell in...um...

Well, he was tarred and feathered and ridden out on a rail.

@KitFox Then what did you think "fixed expression" was about? It's idiom as opposed to a rule that Sudhir could learn.

What the hell book was that?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Well, I agree with your sentiment, but I believe it is not an uncommon expression.

@Cerberus What "fixed expression"?

Oliver Wiswell

That was it.

Can't believe I remembered even that much.

Okay, I give up.

Last time I ever tried.

@Cerberus in ngrams the citations for "hanged to death" are all Indian authors :)

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I have to admit the proportion of Indian authors is large. But there are still many Western names.

Hey, I wouldn't use it. But it's better than hanged till death.

hanged till death do us part

@Cerberus I like "till death" better, personally.

Odd.

books.google.com/ngrams/…

mainly because I don't like "hanged to death" at all. So if you use "till death" I find it's less redundant.

@Cerberus yeah I saw that.

books.google.com/ngrams/…

Hanged until dead is better. Hanged till death evokes marriage vows.

@KitFox yeah. until/till dead is better than death.

Apparently we didn't adequately explain the concept of bunk beds to my sons.

They were very excited to have them, and then wanted to know where my younger son's bunk beds were.

lol

Made my stomach feel bad.

But they didn't seem upset.

So they are sharing a room now?

They will be when we move.

I had a little freak out last week about it.

My kids are not very well behaved at bed time if they share a room.

We don't have a date set for moving and everything has been up in the air.

didn't you JUST move?

So I put my foot down and in as bitchy a way as possible, established that I expected that the boys at least would be settled in their rooms before school started.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 No.

We've been moving for months.

But living in this house for seven years.

We helped our good friends move this weekend. I am hoping it demonstrated to my husband that "two hard weekends" is not a realistic expectation for moving two households.

Especially when one of them has been established for forty or so years.

one weekend should be enough time to move assuming all your shit is packed. Packing takes days. and days.

But then, he's probably hoping that I will stop being such a cunt.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yeah, no.

She's got five bedrooms, an attic, a basement and a barn.

Ah. well, that's a lot of places to store things. I was more thinking of a 3 bedroom house with a garage.

tries to stop thinking about it

your friend should hire movers.

@KitFox Elephants.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 My friend? You mean my MiL?

@MετάEd Thank you.

@KitFox Oh, I misunderstood. yeah. Your MiL should hire movers.

@KitFox It seemed like a fair trade for the hippopotami.

Our friends this weekend had been moving all month and this was just the big stuff, and it still took 14 hours.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Well, the trick is, she's moving to a 2-bedroom cape with no barn or basement and only under-eaves storage.

So really she needs to start moving it all out on the lawn.

@KitFox she should have an auction. or yard sale.

We had one yard sale already.

There is just so much stuff.

But her house isn't finished, so it's not fair for me to be upset about that.

well, sure you can be upset. Just not upset with her. I'd be upset.

Except that naturally I feel justified since most of the things in her house are going away, not to the new place.

I once saw a movie that described moving house as one big chain.

everyone has to move out and in in a process to keep the chain moving.

in this movie, one family that was moving out took literally everything that wasn't in the contract: lightbulbs, doorknobs, etc.

I'm not feeling understanding or compassionate.

sends sympathetic feelings

If you have a ton of stuff that isn't being moved, you should be getting rid of it now. s/you/she/whatever/g.

So the whole sighing and nostalgia and dragging feet over what to do with the brass bed that's in the second guest bedroom is making me apeshit crazy.

God damn it. You are not having guests between now and then. Can we please empty a few of these fucking rooms?

breathes into paper bag

ah, see, that is something you have a right to be upset about, upset with her. She has a job to do.

Don't worry. 10 years from now this will all seem trivial, when the world is attacked by angry aliens from Alpha Centauri.

Yeah, I know. And she's almost 70, and her mom died not that long ago and she's still going through that stuff and her partner is an asshole hoarder, etc.

anyway I'm off to get lunch. try to relax. Practice your meditation. Kill someone who deserves it then hide the body in your boss's office.

@KitFox ugh. flashbacks to when my grandmother-in-law was in failing health and we were trying to clean out her apartment.

He argues with her over keeping magazines from last decade.

I think maybe a new ASMR video.

@KitFox HUG

and I thought the expression was "hanged by the neck until he be dead". Feel free to substitute "she" for "he" when appropriate.

@JSB I can't remember if you pinged me on this one, but this is oddly a very strong trigger for me:

@KitFox Is it odd if I say I love women with long fingers?

I don't think so.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 "hanged to death by the neck" was a phrase back in the days when hanging was a thing

@MattЭллен then it became a preposition?

yes. whence the expression "I'm just going hanged to death by the neck the pub"

Did anyone actually tell the poor person who asked the question that the correct answer is (e) no correction necessary?

I think Cerb did.

I mean, we encourage people to ask questions like this in this room, rather than on the actual site. It's a bit mean if we don't then answer them.

@KitFox Oh, Cerb is a hero.

I don't think of Sudhir as a poor person though.

I was hoping he'd figure it out. he needs to start learning rather than falling back to asking us

Yeah, that.

@MattЭллен To be fair, it's a tricky question.

Teaching to fish and whatnot.

But he's not shown any research or thought process.

@KitFox Yeah, but you don't want to teach a man to fish then take away his rod.

It's what's this? What's this? What's this? He just wants answers, not knowledge.

Tedious.

@DavidWallace yeah. "Hanged to death" isn't exactly a common expression any more.

@KitFox True. But maybe he considers coming to this room to be research.

Maybe, but still he hasn't demonstrated any ability to think.

@MattЭллен s/is/isn't/g ?

oh :D yeah

@MattЭллен I use it -all- the time... uh oh, I've said too much.

@KitFox But sometimes...that's what is needed. and a place like this is the most obvious source for that. annoying as ...

What's that in your hand? I hope I don't end up in the 6 o'clock noose

annoying as what? Finding a worm in your apple?

Finding -half- a worm in your apple?

@Mitch I wouldn't mind it if it weren't for the lack of thinking. It's like filling a leaky bucket.

@KitFox nice! like finding a hair in your soup... not your own. and very curly.

Look out, penises is sliding down the wall.

@Mitch hahaha I read your correction as "half a woman".

@KitFox hm.. that might not be considered so bad.

because the other half wouldn't fit in the apple?

Depends on what I'm expecting to eat.

ha ha. There was a scifi story I read about this guy (kind of a boring accountant type) who discovered he could wish things into existence, like an apple. Then one day he realized he could ...

well he imagined himself a really hot woman.

Poor guy.

Except the rules of the 'magic' where that you as the imaginer had to imagine the right thing, and all he got was this big naked (hot-looking) dead woman on his kitchen floor.

I don't see the problem.

ha ha. nervous laughter

Howard Gardner? (the author)

Right. I was kidding just then.

couldn't he wish into existence a machine that would revive her?

I think the premise of the short story was that the body was a lump of undifferentiated flesh.

Or wish that really hot women would enjoy having sex with him if he said the right phrase?

Also, he'd have to wish into existence the working innards of the reviving machine (or probably easier the correct functioning internals of the woman)

Hmm, I suddenly have an idea for a story.

@KitFox If wishes were horses.

Does it involve a ...something comes to mind... a horse?

I was thinking "How would you like to have the best sex of your life?"

@KitFox Sadly, that's not a 'thing'.

Oh, he needed a thing.

I see.

So he could only call something into existence if he could fundamentally picture its entire structure?

@KitFox I like the stories of the lawyerly Genie grantings of wishes, where they make you live for ever...as very old and in pain.

@Mitch What is it with those damned genies. Aren't they grateful?

Seems like a non-issue. Hot-looking outside, important bits on the inside. Who cares if she's alive?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 look, it was a long time ago, I can't be expected to remember someone else's stories. I can barely remember my own and they mostly happened for real.

What are you, the inquisition?

I did not mean to drive away after I ran over that... ugh...again with the too much informatino. I have to stop that.

@MετάEd something something about snakes can't change

@KitFox yeah. tangible objects. look it was in the rules in the story, you make them up then you have to follow them. That's the meta rule.

That's OK. I know I was being a killjoy with my amorality.

@KitFox I remember something in the story about the 'consistency of a tomato' since that was all his imagination could come up with.

@KitFox No. We enjoy your amorality.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 haha I finally got that. I've read that before. but it never really clicked.

@KitFox immorality is just plain wrong though.

Seriously, if she was all that he could imagine, wouldn't that suffice?

A guy who wants a hot-looking dame probably isn't the type to be concerned about the fact that she doesn't talk.

I think his wife was there. Kind of awkward no matter how it turns out.

@MετάEd Is that really true, or are you being a seafish?

OK hate to pull a 'serious' real world thing on you all but poll: which was worse Clinton or Weiner? (re: the sex things they did, with respect to their wives)

@KitFox what's a seafish?

Is Weiner the sexting guy?

@Mitch Facetious.

@KitFox yes.

@KitFox Is that what kids call it these days?