That’s a perfect body pillow. Perfect for snuggling up to on a cold rainy day.

Somebody deserves a Scooby Snack! One of the good ones!

hey! dogs want to know too.

They’re just a lot slower, so it takes them longer to figure it out.

For the record, if the friend is concerned about relapsing, the mere taste might be enough to trigger cravings. We can argue about how many people can taste it or not. It’s a risk the friend is unwilling to take and that should be respected.

And if it’s a religious restriction… it just gets weirder. It should still be respected…. Even if things seem odd.

Generally when people say “no food cooked with Alcohol”, they mean it; even if they’re okay with foods that have some alcohol in them in trace amounts.

“Should I serve my In-laws NA beer so they don’t come back?” Might be the rare exception!

Given the food restrictions, you’re probably better off using water, or maybe mostly water and a splash of white vinegar (to get the acidic kick the wine would add.)

Keep in mind, non-alcoholic wine is going to be nasty. While it doesn’t need to be spectacular wine… you don’t want to use stuff that you would not willingly drink. Cheap wine in particular usually ends up getting reduced and the “cheapness” just gets magnified.

<chuckles in EvilGM>

No. That’s a Charlie Chapman ‘Stache.

The furball lacks that crazed gleam in the eyes

Listen to you Elder.

I don’t own either atm.

I’m not at a place where I can give pets the full attention they deserve. I do love both.

A well cared for dog is going to not smell awful, same as a well cared cat. On the other hand, there is a smell all the same.

Btw, a poorly cared for cat is going to reek something fierce. They might take care of themselves better, but if they don’t have what they need, (a clean living environment, including the litter box,) they’re going to have problems.

If Biden had the spine to do that, trump would already be in jail and convicted of far too many things to even remember.

There’s the smell of dogs, then there’s the smell of infrequently bathed dogs.

Cats and dogs are very much the same in that non-owners usually can walk into an owner’s house and know there’s a cat or dog there. It’s, not necessarily a bad smell, buts there.

The same way that I can tell if a specific coworker was hoteling in the office. She gets her perfume from Claire’s (yes, the same strawberry-bliss or whatever it’s called from middle school…).

Infrequently bathed dogs, however is another story.

It’s really unfortunate tethe internet is forever

Don’t ask about the giant hams,

The basic concept is easy, the implementation details are not.

Coding a slicer to stagger layer lines is definitely tedious, and frustrating. But in that case, the patent doesn’t patent brick-layering techniques. It patents a specific technique of achieving that.

But when they’re supposed to judge “non-obviousness” it’s a bit more than just “is it simple”. the question is, would somebody else see it as obvious (if they had never looked at your work,). staggered layers are obvious. Anyone with any amount of experience in structural engineering would be like “Well, yeah”.

Now this is where the non-obvious gets fun. If any one whose reasonably knowledgeable in the system would follow the same technique you used. there has to be something “special” about it. And since the patent itself is based on significant past work; the argument could be made that anyone following that past work would arrive at the same techniques should be okay. (Except they’re patent trolls and patent law lobbyists for said trolls have fucked everything over.)

there’s a second caveat here that’s worth mentioning. you can lose your patents if you don’t exploit them. as far as I know there’s no slicer- paid or otherwise- using their patent.

aren’t patents supposed to be “non obvious”?

when you talk to trump, you’re really talking to putin. That latency in responses is him receiving instructions. Otherwise it’s all in one ear, out the other.

And this is why you’re useless in meetings.

You need to turn the camera down so we can see the cat, too.

but… if I don’t make a mess, how are you going to stress clean?

See. I’m helping you destress.

My brother used to wait at an Applebees type joint, (well except there was actual food and not just appetizers,)

Apparently the worst tippers were the Sunday-after-church crowd followed closely by lunch-special (soup and salad,) rush.

The problem with the soup and salad was that it was free refills so lots of work and the bill stayed low for the percentage tippers.