OT - What are you doing now? (2026)

GrateEggspectations said:

@WestAusEgg

Envious!! What took you there? Highlights?

I’ve been going to Hong Kong for the last 14 years once or twice a year to practice kung fu. There are a lot of great things to do - star ferry, big Buddha, peak tram, light show (all the buildings light up), eat every different type of cuisine you can imagine. Well worth the visit or a couple of days layover on the way to somewhere else.

WestAusEgg said:

GrateEggspectations said:

@WestAusEgg

Envious!! What took you there? Highlights?

I’ve been going to Hong Kong for the last 14 years once or twice a year to practice kung fu. 

Did not expect that answer.  

Uff-dah.  
We had a pretty loud thunderstorm roll thru this afternoon, with just enough rain to spot up washed cars, not enough to give my lawn a sip until Friday when the secondary water finally gets turned on.  I turned off the HVAC and opened some windows to listen to the thunder, and still have them open now.
I could hear some guy on a sportbike having lots of fun throughout South Ogden.  My Yamaha FZ-6 could hit 14,000 rpm, at top of first gear and 60 mph, so I knew the sound well (could really only hit it safely on an interstate on-ramp); this guy was revving beyond 14K so was on an R6 or similar from another brand, and it didn't sound like he was just doing on-ramps.  
Suddenly during a top rpm run, it stopped abruptly and ended with a sound that I can't quite describe; not a thud, not a crash, just a... not sure... >crack!< ?? 
I'll click on the news tomorrow morning to see who it was.  

Botch said:

^^^ I saw the stills, but hadn't seen the video, thanks for posting that.  
Cage drivers not seeing you and making a left in front of you is something you quickly become aware of.  
Nothing on the local news this morning yet.  

speeding through the Mall Boulevard or whatever intersection it’s probably not smart

Also, I keep getting emails asking for people to work EDC this weekend. That is my literal nightmare.

CPFC1905 said:

Deep in the dog days of this season and in a peculiar contortion of the laws of reason, almost everyone will be a winner. The top two are still fighting it out and Spurs are clinging to a slender advantage, fractionally above of the dotted line.  But in the expanding mid-section of the league things are getting weird, and you might want to regard the fate of Schrödinger’s cat to make sense of it.  Because Villa could qualify for the Champions League by finishing 4th or 5th, and possibly winning their Euro comp, this means a spare space potentially emerges.  The various teams who can gain that place play against them and other contenders for the place which may or may not exist.  A plausible hypothesis is those teams lose to Villa in order to achieve greater success.  And why? Because the PL is the richest league in the world so attacks the best players and gradually dominates all club level competitions.  

Friday

Villa vs Liverpool - 4th host 5th and both in the box seat for CL qualification - a win for either nails that on.  Despite Villa seemingly having the better season they have almost identical stats. Screams draw, so 1-1.

Sunday 

Man United vs Forest - the hosts are assured CL football next year and Forest similarly have zero to play for, so the risk of beach football is very high.  Both in good recent form but the lads trip to Vegas (now the Dubai is a bit tricky) or avoiding injury for the World Cup will be foremost on their minds. 1-0

Brentford vs Palace - limp and flaccid conclusion to the league season for the mighty Palace and while our first Euro final looms, I’d rather see a few more points on the board. The Bees have mysteriously found themselves in the as yet to be manifested spare CL spot - or at least the second Euro echelon next season. 1-0

Everton vs Sunderland - no point to this match at all. 1-1

Leeds vs Brighton - the hosts are in great form but for the filthy Seagulls, see above for Brentford.  We can only hope that truth and justice prevails and the media darlings get spanked.  Won’t happen though, 1-2

Wolves vs Fulham - second futile was of CO2 emissions this weekend. 0-1

Newcastle vs West Ham - all right thinking people want a Hammers win here because there are diminishing opportunities to relegate Spurs. Sadly recent form suggests they won’t get this over the line, but their players showed terrific sprint against the Gunners last week.  A home win really leaves the Hammers wedged behind the eight-ball.  Heroic but futile 1-1.

Monday 

Arsenal vs Burnley - the gunners need goals, many goals to ram home their advantage as pole sitters.  3-0

Tuesday 

Bournemouth vs Man City - interesting as Citeh are in good form and play the FA Cup final on Saturday while the Cherries are eying CL qualification.  All results are on the table and much is to play for.  We’d all benefit from an early home goal to set this game alight as anything less than win sees the title go Arsenal.  It will be tight. 1-2 and we have a final game title decider on the cards. 

Chelsea vs Spurs - The Chels’ have arrested their decline and a win in the FA Cup against Citeh is not impossible.  Spurs are unbeaten in 4 and will feel confident going in to this one, but they could be under the dotted line - which would certainly unlock ’Spursy’ their volatile inner chimp.  Either way they won’t be safe and their hoist won’t feel under nay obligation to help them.  2-1

Finally, nothing makes me happier than seeing that Dave and Vicky Beckham are now ‘officially’ billionaires.  I was getting bit worried about them, what with the rise in fuel prices but needn’t have bothered.   So that’s a load off. 

Once again, I think you are spot on. 

Well mostly.

Arsenal won't win by 3.

And Spurs will have enough in the tank to beat Chelsea...

Unfortunately, I won't get to see much of the action this weekend due to travel/work.

GrateEggspectations said:I built copper gutters for an old timer maybe 35 

Never seen this before. Copper eavestroughs and downspouts. Beautiful. 

I built some huge copper gutters for an old timer 35/40 years ago. Today the materials would go maybe 150k plus US dollars. Pretty sure it was once a castle, mostly granite with the black slate roof.  These were big and heavy weight,  whoever installed them would have needed a crane.  Liked nice but not so elegant

GrateEggspectations said:

Never seen this before. Copper eavestroughs and downspouts. Beautiful. 

Are you sure? I put roofs on public rest stops in 5 locations.  We used a steel metal roof in a color called New Penny that looks like new copper. Perhaps for drainage they used real copper due to the smaller amount of metal used.

Looks like copper to me, I’ve seen them before. They do turn green but they still look good. 

Botch said:

Running the sprinklers for the first time this year.  Because of the scant snowpack, and an unusually warm February/March, I've already mowed 3 times and my lawn is pretty crunchy; hopefully it'll bounce back.
About 10% of my neighbors have given up and installed Vegas/Phoenix-style yards (ie rocks and succulents), wanted to do that to my boulevard at least this year, but my plumber has a kid going to college so I had to replace all my indoor plumbing instead.  Maybe next year.  

It was a rough winter. We are getting our backyard done this year, we don't have the option of putting in natural grass though.

fishlessman said:

 Clerk:  throw this under the front tire

driver:  ok

Ha!  Mostly I really just did not want her to open it and inspect what was inside, especially since I told her it was bbq rubs and “some sauce”, as in the sort of sauce one hits with a glass and an ice cube.

lousubcap said:

@JohnInCarolina - I have never had a UPS person ask me any questions about any BBQ sauce shipments or any other packages I have sent.  Did you ask her if she knew the difference between brittle and ductile fracture?😜

I try not to do much asking, since I’m the one on the witness stand.

I got questioned about one package one time by USPS. At her request I packaged a shipment of bbq goods in the trimmings from my rosemary bush. She made soap and lotions from various herbs. I think the post office thought I was mailing weed.