…sent us the wrong frickin’ order. For what I think is the third time. One bottle exploded from cold. The others are frozen. We don’t know what might happen with the ones that have to thaw.
On the phone front, it WAS the wall connector, which apparently corrodes, if repeated dosed with coffee (thank you, kittehs, who persistently knock my coffee off the ledge with affectionate swipes or in enthusiasm to murder foreign cats intruding into the garden.) Seems if one part of the phone line (as with other electrics) dies and breaks the circuit with a dead spot, phones all over the house go down. Which is why our wireless hookup was working out of the office, but the other things on the landline weren’t.
Jane fixed it. There’s nothing Jane can’t do. I thought sure we’d be in for a repair bill on this one.
Liquids freezing when shipping in winter is a huge problem…..but you would think Soda Stream would have the courtesy to mention the possibility of freezing. Of course it’s entirely possible that the freezing is due to some doofus leaving the package on the loading dock. You don’t seem to be having a lot of luck with your shipments lately; toes crossed that all gets sorted soon.
Good to have a phone again. Beverage is in no way beneficial to any sort of appliance!
Completely off subject….avoiding exams by calling in bomb threats is not treated with humor by the feds. Yes on Monday a student shut down Harvard by calling in bomb threats because he didn’t want to take an exam! Makes you wonder what the criteria is for admitting students!
That was rated declasse by high schoolers back in the 70’s. Sheesh.
When I was stationed at Naval Training Center, San Diego (1988-1991), we had a rash of bomb threats to the school in which I was an instructor. It took a few weeks, but the young lady who was calling them in was caught in the act, on the phone at the same time a threat was being received. Since it had already been established that that particular phone had been used in every previous threat, she was “removed” from school, was probably given a court martial, and a dishonorable discharge. Kind of ruined her life for something stupid as not wanting to go to school, even if it was a Navy technical school.
She was also too stupid to be entrusted with most jobs. The only reason these idiots don’t get caught immediately is simply that the people investigating don’t think them worth the time—and that’s a factor that can change abruptly.
I should have mentioned that she was in training for Radioman “A” School, which is a basic communications school. Most radiomen in the Navy must have a Top Secret security clearance, which means you have to be pretty responsible when you consider what passes through your hands.
I was not sorry at the loss of a potential threat. I am sorry that she threw her life away that way, though. Did not think it through clearly, did she?
Why in the name of all that is holy was she in this training, if she wasn’t up to it? I would have thought that this type of school was elective, or only offered to people with a desire and talent for it. A very ill-considered way to cut class.
There’s no way of knowing at the beginning of school if someone is or isn’t up to the training. When you enlist, you are given a choice of specialties based upon your aptitude test scores. Unfortunately at the time, RM “A” school required a low aptitude score, which has thankfully been upgraded, but in some ways, I can understand what her feelings were. When I taught there, it was all classroom lecture, the first test was on the third day of school. The material comes at you quickly, you have tests that you are required to score 80 or better or else you have to retake them, and if you score less than 80, you are set back. The only exception is the safety test, a ten question test which you must score 100%. (Sounds harsh, but if you fail a safety rule in the fleet, you could end up dead.) A second setback results in you being removed from the school and sent out to the fleet as an undesignated sailor. That is a daunting feeling for a young sailor who’s probably facing real pressure for the first time, and now suddenly, she’s faced with strong pressure. Sorry, but when you’re in the military, you’re expected to be under pressure, including combat. I really don’t know what her problem was, but all I can say for sure is that she handled it badly. At the time, nobody knew who was making the calls. Until NCIS was able to track the phone calls and then put a watch on the phone, she was able to make the calls. I should have stressed that she was calling from a pay phone on the third floor of the female barracks. Calling in those bomb threats while she was on a Navy installation is a felony under federal law, especially since she did it multiple times.
I forgot to ask, since I’m interested, which Soda Stream model do you have?
Joe, the key is the carbonation bottle. Any unit that has the 60 Liter carbonation bottle is the best value. http://www.amazon.com/SodaStream-Source-Black-Metal-1019511011/dp/B0058PE00I/ref=sr_sp-btf_image_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1387406590&sr=8-15&keywords=soda+stream
this one is black, ours is silver and red, but the main thing is how much carbonation before you have to change the cylinder out and how big a bottle can it deal with: ours carbonates a nice big bottle.
The big-bottle units cost a bit more, but ultimately save the price back by not using those pint-sized bottles that wouldn’t last much over a week at our place. You can get your 60 L refilled at Walmart or various other places that handle it, and having ultimately a couple of those bottles is a good thing.
Been looking these over for you, and this is one of the best deals: it has a spare carbonater unit (45.00 new)> and a spare refrigerator bottle. You store plain water, chilled, in the fridge in the fat bottles: they’re special plastic that doesn’t leach nastiness. Good for 3 years. The carbonator bottles are the compressed gas, and Walmart takes them back in trade for filled ones. http://www.amazon.com/Sodastream-Fountain-SodaStream-60-Liter-Carbonator-Spare/dp/B008EK74PW/ref=sr_sp-atf_image_3_33?ie=UTF8&qid=1387406981&sr=8-33&keywords=soda+stream
I wonder….I have both a 15 lb and 5 lb CO2 bottle that I use for my beermaking. The 15 lb is used to carbonate the beer after filtering, and the 5 lb is used for dispensing when I take a keg out to a party. There is a cap available called the “Carbonator” that fits onto a standard 2 liter soda bottle, attaches to the keg through a standard ball-lock fitting (I have several of these fittings). This cap costs roughly $13.00.
There used to be a system called “Charlie O” that worked similarly to what I do when I carbonate the beer. You’d fill the bottle with water, chill it, then attach that CO2 tank to the bottle and shake until you reached the desired carbonation.
Oh, and one other thing, I was reading the reviews of the product on the Wal-Mart website, and one user recommended using shaved-ice syrup for the flavoring, that it was much cheaper per unit, and gave a similar flavor. I don’t know, don’t have either shaved ice, or SodaStream (heck, I’m still trying to decide if I want a pod-type coffeemaker).
There are several places that offer shaved ice/sno-cone syrup online, or as we call it around here, shave ice 🙂 It would be nice if they offered a sampler pack, a cup each of a variety of syrups so you can decide which ones are tasty. I can imagine many of them not working for carbonated beverages, or simply being a very much acquired taste.
We recently used a CO2 tank and the ‘Carbonator’ at the shop Christmas party to make carbonated Margaritas, home brewed Hard Cider, etc using standard 2 liter soda bottles. Worked very well.
We also had Nitrogen Bourbon Ice Cream. It was fun.
Thank you!
Maybe, considering how poorly your shipments have been handled, declare a moratorium on buying your supplies online. Stick with local until the spring; at least they probably won’t get damaged or frozen before you get them.
Or, at least, online from Walmart or Target who have half a clue.
Let me echo Joe’s thanks: I like carbonation occasionally–mainly in pasta carbonara–so it’s entirely optional for me. An option I think I’ll decline for the foreseeable future at home. But you’ve saved me a bucket of money! (Do I save it or do I spend it? A watch with a circlular slide rule–how silly is that?)
CJ, have you ever had the temptation to use your history knowledge for historical fiction or SF? I’ve been reading a Space:1889 novel, which is so-so so far. I was once asked what historical figure I’d like to talk with. My answer was Hero(n) of Alexandria, to slap him upside the head a few times, and ask him what he was thinking, delaying the industrial revolution for 1800 years? I’d love Roman Steampunk, with bronzeclads–no seaweed or barnacles because of the copper!–zooming around the Med in 100 AD. Hm: E. Moon for military authenticity (while I’m dreaming)?
(If you feel teacherly, I would treasure a critique of — vs. () in the above. Due to over-exposure to LISP–I saw it!–I feel I over-parenthesize. Maybe I over-break in all flavors.)
Heh. The old flight calculators that I learned on (came with the Cessna Flight School pack) had a round slide rule for calculating flight times with windage, etc.
The round ones are effectively longer and also harder to break by accident than the standard foot-longs.
Lol—I started, but never finished, a novel set in ancient Greece—but I began to decide there were just too many footnotes: not literally, but the temptation to put in bits and tags of daily life-as-was was extreme, and it was getting too alien from America to be published in that day and age. Sounded like it was written by an archaeologist…
Too bad. 🙁 Challenging our idealized image of the Atenians I think would have been a good thing. Bettany Hughes’ programs did a bit of that.
Athenians! sigh…
Though, my reaction to Patrick O’Brian’s Royal Navy books is that they’re in such a different world than normal America, they end up very close to SF or fantasy. And a lot is in the bits of daily life throughout them. Too bad, indeed.
I have the same feeling (of vast differences) about the pre-Civil War New Orleans of Barbara Hambly’s “Benjamin January” books.
You could write the darned thing, then filter it for “Five Lives in Early Greece, Circa ????BCE” and companion story…
Unfortunately calling in bomb threats, particularly in Boston/Cambridge, is no longer regarded as a student prank. It’s now a federal offense and the feds take a very dim view of such things. His lawyer has said he was under stress…..I would posit that there are better ways of dealing with stress!
We use the 60 liter chargers for our Soda Stream. We use both one liter and half liter bottles and go through a cylinder about every five or six weeks. We drink a lot of water! One came with the initial set and we bought an extra. We exchange them at Staples so we always have a new one on hand. Because we turn in the used empties, I think Proge pays about $15.00 per cylinder.
Most of the grad courses at Harvard are graded based on a single exam or final research paper, at least the courses I took. Undergrad courses tend to be better. I would have been totally freaked as a prof to have the final disrupted and potentially canceled (turns out two options for make-ups have been offered, one a number of weeks away.). Can’t be good for the students studying and prepped for the test either, or for the grad students who do the bulk of the grading in the huge courses either as it totally disrupts your holiday plans.
My colleague at work in Boston was in Harvard Yard to pick up a “toy drive” holiday presents donation from Harvard students when the call came in. He had to leave immediately, empty handed. We both went to the school, so know the buildings the bomb scare was called in to. Yes, totally déclassé act, but the stress of exams temporarily twist your perspective.
Off Topic: Comodo is blocking the Shejidan site as invasion free “may have prohibited content” WTF!
Bizarre. Most links they tend to list (as you well know) are books. Maybe the word ‘alien’ worries them?
The block disappeared briefly, now it is back with a site specific notice of ‘Prohibited Content’ Even capitalized!
I repeat WTF cubed.
Hmmm… Y’no, Bren and Jago aren’t married, or even contracted…
See if you can figure that out, Pence! Inquiring minds want to know.
Right, the Comodo block may emanate from some other forum that has no connection whatsoever to Shejidan. It’s kind of like blocking all of Youtube because there’s pr0n (or just nsfw material) tucked away somewhere, when all you’re really interested in is Doctor Whooves…