Month: July 2008

Crankypantsing

Name Your Price

Shelly

I got asked to do another cat sitting job. It’s for three weeks in September, which is kind of long, but I sat for these cats for two weeks last summer, and it went fine. I’ve had numerous shorter jobs for this client over the past couple of years, so except for the length of the job, this is all completely routine. Except that this time, when asking me if I could do the September job, she said, “Name your price.”

What does that mean? Is she thinking I’ll cut her a break, because it’s a large job? Or does she think that I’ll want more, because it’s a large job? I just want what I normally get, and if gas goes up significantly, I intend to add a fuel tax. (The fuel tax is something we’ve discussed and come to an agreement about already, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s part of any future jobs I do for them.)

I have no clue what to tell her, if and when she asks again what I’m charging.

God, I hate negotiating fees. I sat for the ex-wife of another client a couple of months ago, and when I went for the initial meet-n-greet, she asked what I charged. I told I’m flexible, but I usually get $15/day if it’s just one visit and $25/day for two (See? There’s already a built-in bulk discount!). That doesn’t seem out of line to me, considering how much boarding costs[1]. But maybe that’s high? Because when I told her, she was taken aback. So I repeated, “I’m flexible. How much do you normally pay your other sitter(s)?” We did finally come to an agreement (I think it was $12/day for one visit), but I don’t think I’ll get any repeat business from her.

Hrmf! This is the sort of annoying crap that keeps me awake at night. Hopefully, she doesn’t think she’s entitled to the Friends’ Discount for the September job, cuz that ain’t gonna happen!

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1. The cheapest I’ve seen locally is $10/night per cat[2]. So $20/night for two cats, which is slightly cheaper than my “two visits per day” rate. However, cats being what they are, it just seems to make more sense to leave them at home, instead of stressing them out by boarding them.

2. That’s at Canine Companions, and let’s just say that I wouldn’t board my dog there, much less my cat. Maybe things have improved lately? I heard some rotten things about them from coworkers, and when I used to go in there to buy feed, the lack of supervision of the outdoor play area did not favorably impress me.

Genealogy

Griffith’s Valuation

Shelly

There was a post on soc.genealogy.ireland yesterday about Griffith’s Valuation. Various parts of Griffith’s have been minimally indexed online over the years, but this is the first time it’s been published in its entirety, for free. And it’s not just a transcription, either. It includes scans of the original pages, as well as the corresponding maps.

Why is this big news? The only extant censuses for Ireland are from 1901 onward. Pretty much everything before 1901 was destroyed accidentally by fire or flood or deliberately by government decree. The 1901 and 1911 censuses are all that are available to the public. There was no 1921 census, due to the civil war. The first census of the Irish Free State was taken in 1926. That will be the next available census, but because Irish privacy laws prohibit the publishing of census records for 100 years, it’s not yet available. The 1901 and 1911 censuses were released ahead of schedule, because of the dearth of Irish vital statistics. There is a push to do the same with the 1926 census, so hopefully it will be made public soon. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.

So, back to Griffith’s. The reason it’s such a valuable tool is that it is the only full, extant “census” of Ireland from the mid 1800s. It has its limitations, though. For a start, it only lists the name of the tenant, so names of spouses, children, and extended family are not available. It also lacks any sort of biographical information on the tenants, so you cannot use age, marital status, etc. to help determine whether or not you have a match. It does, however, list the name of the landlord, as well as mapping the tenant’s holding(s).

I haven’t had much time to dig into it, but I did a quick search and found at least one Basquill who was a tenant of the 3rd Earl of Lucan. I wrote a little bit about the famine here, which should give you some idea of what sort of major league sociopath the good earl was.

My problem now is figuring out how to cite the damned thing. You would think that the folks who’ve indexed and transcribed it would want to provide proper bibliographic information for it, wouldn’t you? Or have I been in Library La La Land for too long?

Art, Crankypantsing, Photography

Wing

Shelly

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It stormed last night, and this morning, there was a wing from either a moth or butterfly stuck to the window by my cubicle. The wind must’ve thrown him up against the glass.

And now, a rant.

I’m just about fed up with drive-by blog spammers. One of the art-related mail lists I subscribe to gets a steady stream of people who only post in order to funnel traffic to their blogs. It’s annoying as hell. “Hi, I don’t care enough to actually participate in this group, but I wrote something cutesy-puke on my blog. Please drop by! Andalsoplustoo, don’t forget to leave a comment! Hugs-n-Kisses!!!” How obnoxious!

If whatever cutsey-puke crap they’re blogging about is (presumably) off-topic for the group, then posing a “come visit” link is also off-topic, right? And if it’s actually on-topic, then why the hell can’t they just share their damned story with everyone and be done with it? I mean, what is the point of a discussion forum, if people are just posting links to outside fora, instead of holding those discussions within the group?

Pets

Another Fishy Update

Shelly

I went out this morning to pick up a package of algae wafers for my pleco. He’s pretty much cleaned the tank, so it was time to get him some real food. As I was opening the package, both goldfish did their “OMG I’m starving!” dance at the front of the tank. Very cute, and a very welcome sight after how sick they’ve been. I dropped an algae wafer into the tank, and both goldfish attacked it. It was gone in about 15 minutes.

Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon, because the poor little pleco didn’t get a single bite of algae. He saw the wafer and got as close as he dared while the big fish were eating, but I suspect he didn’t want to challenge them.

My Garden, Photography

The Farm Report

Shelly

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Green Tomatoes

The tomatoes are not going to get very big. That’s my fault, for crowding them. I should have transplanted them, so they’d have more room, but I was lazy. They’ll still be tasty, though, even if they’re a bit on the small side.

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Green Peppers

The peppers are almost large enough to pick! And there are tons of them, and tons more blooms, too. I have a feeling I may have peppers coming out my ears. Too bad the tomatoes aren’t producing so well.