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Hey, @taters , check this out--up for a road trip or to arrange transport?
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Oh my goodness, what a beautiful dog!
I wish I had seen it earlier because I would have certainly contacted the shelter. As it is, I'm getting ready to hop on an airplane, and am out of the net for a bit, so there is no way I could do this right now. I've read the reddit comments; I sure hope someone saves him. |
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I have had a disgruntled day, which is mostly my fault, because I let a rude remark in a PM get to me (I had offered something to a friend--it's cute and we could have shared a laugh about it, even if she didn't want it), and she answered me rather brusquely/terse, and really shut me and my offer down. Boo on her, but I should have shrugged it off. Some days I'm not great at doing that. Got a lot done, though: rearranged my bedroom and I really like it; tidied in general (overdue), ironed, paid bills, made my lunches for the next 2 days, and got a walk in. |
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Weekend update:
I was off work on Friday which gave me the ability to have a leisurely morning (much needed; caught a non-Covid cough from the girls and have been a bit under the weather), then run errands (meds for Fluff, a couple more birthday gifts for Swimmy, groceries) and get back in time to gather camping supplies and order pizza and head over to the stadium for Senior Night. It pissed rain off and on all day and was hovering in the low 50s, but fortunately the rain stopped just in time for pregame. It started back up again just before halftime, but I was determined to stick around for at least that and watch MD in the "senior feature" celebrating the class of 24. Rain stopped again so we stuck around for the band's halftime show which they performed after the game because a) the show is too long to do at halftime and b) seniors. We got home not long before 10:00, finished loading the Jeep, and headed up to camp for a weekend in the woods. Didn't get up there until after 1:00 a.m. and dodged wildlife on the way in. I was glad the teens followed me in their car because I was rightly on high alert for the elusive* white tail. Saturday misty rain continued but Dad had a roaring fire going in the cabin and we had a nice slow, quiet morning until my aunt and uncle showed up with three of their adult kids and two 5yr old grandkids. Turns out Dad neglected to check if anyone else intended to use the cabin this weekend. Not a surprise considering this was peak leaf weekend up there. So much for quiet. Fortunately this was a low-drama branch of the family, so the 14 of us managed to cohabitate peacefully for the rest of the weekend. We got a walk in between rain showers and the pups didn't get too terribly muddy. I made wedding soup and bread for dinner. Branch family sat by an outside fire and most of us sat inside playing cards and drinking wine. Sunday the rain finally quit but we had stuff to do so packed up and headed out after brunch. Got home in time to do the week's laundry and Eldest finished and submitted her midterm before dinner. Got her back to school and the household marginally turned around for the week. I'm behind on the cleaning, but will want to blitz at week's end anyway because we're having a little family party for Swimmy's 11th birthday, which is today. *The park brochure for a state campground we stayed in in several years back listed the animals one might see there, including "the elusive white-tailed deer." Considering not a day goes by without seeing them at home, it's become a running family joke. |
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That was a lot of people at the cabin, Solfy! I'm glad it worked out.
Helena, I am so very sorry to hear about Twig. Rigs, I hear you on feeling disgruntled by your friend's tone. I have a difficult time shrugging off stuff like that, too. I now have a full-time job. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Available government funding for my admin position has increased from half time to full time, and my boss feared being penalized if she didn't take advantage of it. She got permission to hire someone to job share with me, but she doesn't like that idea (and frankly, neither do I, nor do I think that the government would be happy about if for very long). So here we are. 805 days until I can retire! I figure I can stick it out. I had a great three-day weekend before this change came into effect. We spent one day and night with Mr. Duck's family, then two days and one night with my daughter's family in Halifax where we attended a hilarious play and ate too much good food. ![]() Pogo, from a ways back, welcome! |
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What's the primary difference between yellow and green curry? (besides the color)
Now I've got a hankering for Thai food. MD works at the Thai place tonight, but we were just out for dinner on Monday for Swimmy's bday. Maybe we'll pick some up Friday since MD will be at the football game. I hate to get Thai when MD joins us since she eats it every shift she works. Strange weather today. It was in the mid 70s and sunny yesterday, which took me by pleasant surprise because I thought the whole week would be 50s and rainy like last week. Today the forecast is for 75 again, but it's super cloudy/gloomy. Don't know how we'll hit 75 without sunlight. Ultimately it doesn't matter since I'm chained to my WFH desk today. Tomorrow I'm visiting the old OLD workplace that I left in 2014 for a meeting. I'm looking forward to it. Might look up a friend for lunch before the meeting. |
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I browned all the chicken at the same time, so it was just some extra chopping different veges in the two. I precooked the peppers and carrots in the microwave, so cook time for the green curry was about 20 minutes. I need to work on the recipe some, it wasn't quite it.
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The Japanese yellow is a more classic curry mix. It is mostly turmeric, coriander, cumin and cinnamon. It is less sweet and is heartier. My favorite is the S&B golden curry mix. Get the hot, it isn't that spicy. I made the batch of yellow yesterday and put it in the refrigerator. Today I'll make rice in the rice cooker and portion it out for lunches. |
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OMG, can the terrible pet stuff just stop please? I had the grandkid over yesterday, as I usually do on Wednesdays, and got a text from his mom that she was at the vet's with their youngest cat, a slinky boy void named Loki, who had fallen ill the day before. Turns out the cat had a very bad UTI and that treatment would run into the thousands with no real guarantee of success--they called around for her and found another vet in Salem with a lower estimate so she drove all the way down there with the kitteh. After assessment they told her that yes, indeed, a best case scenario of 24 hours of treatment (sedation, catheterization, heavy antibiotics, etc.) would run $4600 and it would more than likely require more like 48-72 hours more than THAT, at about a grand a day and still no assurances it would work or that on top of that he wouldn't need surgery as well. Nobody here has that kind of money laying around. So I put her on speakerphone and broke the news to the kid that the kitteh would have to be put down, and that since they were over an hour away he wouldn't be able to say goodbye in person. It went about as well as you'd expect, but I have to say the kid handled his emotions like a champ, told his kitteh goodbye over the phone and then we all sobbed some and DIL's dad showed up (he lives in the Salem area) to give her support as she did what needed to be done. I kept the kid fed and hydrated and we watched thoroughly inappropriate movies to keep his mind off things then I took him home in time for DILs arrival. She had stopped on the way for ice cream and chocolate, a wise choice I think. Anyway, once I made sure everyone was safe and secure I left them to the grieving process and got home around midnight, and of course much too wired to sleep. Sigh. Kitteh was only three, and sweet and playful and he will be missed. So the family score for the year is now three cats and one dog and I'd really like it if the world could just back up off our collective dick plz.
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Aw, sorry about Kitty. That had to be such a hard call to make, but ultimately the right one in the long term.
I visited Old Old Workplace today. The meeting was good, got to “network” with lots of people from there and Old Workplace. Roamed the halls a bit after to reminisce and see who else I could bump into. I haven’t worked there for almost a decade and hadn’t been there for meetings since well before the pandemic. The facility is practically a time capsule (one bulletin board in particular hasn’t changed in at least 15yrs) but more than half the names on the labs have changed. That’s not surprising. The gossip I got was less than happy, too. The culture there was special when I started and had already started to spiral down when I left. Or maybe I just get more jaded with age. Probably a little of column A, little of B. One bright note: I thought I’d missed the retirement of one of my favorite techs, but he’s still hanging around. Wasn’t there today, but I can still catch him. |
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this is my last "normal" day at my job and next Friday is my last day of full time, after which I will be unemployed and not even going to file for unemployment for various reasons.
Next week my replacement will be there along with some management person I don't know to train him in the management job I am unwilling to do. if next week ends up being hard for any reason, I'm going to be uplifted by the certain knowledge that I am earn more per hour (possibly much more) than the young man replacing me who will have SO much more work and stress. ![]() |
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The furnace was making an intermittent clank noise. The landlord came over to drain the sprinkler system for the year, so I told him about it. Turns out a screw had worked loose and a piece of sheet metal was flopping back and forth. He tightened everything up and it seems to be good now.
(He's a retired HVAC guy, so this was legit versus being very dangerous. Plus I have a battery powered carbon-monoxide detector next to the bed and it has been reading 0 ppm the whole time.) |
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Make sure you let the young man know your pay rate, Jackie, it might influence your own job situation if he can really feel the dirty dick he's being given.
![]() ![]() We're heading for our first real cold snap so I did a mini-winterizing run around the place, cleaned and put away the glass bird bath, put away the porch lounge and moved the waterproof dog bed up onto the porch, put the hose away after draining it and moved a bucket under the remaining water pipes in the crapshack. This made me feel a bit safer lol. |
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smartie, I'm so sorry about grandkid's kitty.
jackie, I'm sorry about the job situation. I returned home from Missouri yesterday after visiting the kids and grandkids. They now live outside a super tiny town about 170 miles northeast of Kansas City. We had a really great visit and stayed in the house SiL's stepmother lives in. She and her husband were generous and warm hosts and made us feel really welcome. The kids are living in a tiny little 100-year-old farmhouse while they start the building process for the home they are putting on a different part of the farm. The new home site is located on a beautiful part of the farm and it looks like the building process will begin around May. We were able to easily walk from the stepmother's home to the kids' temporary home and spent much time between the two houses. We explored some of the area and enjoyed the scenic views. We also went to Jamesport which is an Amish town and explored some of the shots there. We went to a furniture store and I now know where I'm going to buy my next dining and bedroom sets. The prices, even with shipping were extraordinarily reasonable too. I also drove a very large combine owned by my son-in-law's friend. I was very nervous about driving a nearly six hundred thousand dollar piece of equipment, but once I got behind the wheel, it wasn't hard at all. I harvested many rows of soybeans and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I jokingly stated to my son-in-law that we'd move out there too, and he very seriously said to let him know because he knew he could buy some of the land off folks right next to them. The reality is, I don't see myself ever moving there. While the trees were gorgeous in their fall color, and it looked like a pleasant place to live, I missed the evergreens and the mountains from here. I mean, things could change; you never know what life throws your way; I love it here too much to go. I would love it better in a rural part of the PNW, but I remain hopeful that will happen for me. We came home to a cold snap, and since I had neglected to turn on the heat before we left, the house was a bit chilly upon our return. The heat is now on. I made it to nearly the end of October before having to turn on the heat, so I think I did pretty well. Fortunately, it wasn't pipe bursting cold, and the house was fine, and our house was fine because it's really well insulated. |
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It really was, wolfie. You sped up via a lever and lowered the blades on the same lever. There was an onboard computer and you had to watch the screen and let the bushel count zero out before you flipped things off. The steering was extremely sensitive too.
Anyway, it's something I've never done and I was grateful to K for the experience. He rode with me and we had a really great chat while I drove the combine. I posted some pics and a video of me driving the combine on FB. |
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Hatch Status: all battened
We have a snow storm coming in and things have been been put away and prepared for the storm. As part of the preparation, I went to Costco to get some things which included one of the rotisserie chickens. And I got to see the Chicken Magician in action. The chicken shelf was bare, but all four ovens were running full bore. And they had this cool display about how much longer. And one of the ovens was only 15 minutes away. So I faffed around and came back to find a line waiting for the chickens. When the oven finished, it booped and the Magician came over and checked internal temp. All was good, so he got under way. He laid out 21 of the package bottoms on the counter in groups of three. Then he would grab one of the skewers and rapidly put the chickens in the lower package. Then he put the tops on and suddenly we all had chicken. It was fast and competent and added a whole lot of happiness to the world. |
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That sounds amazing, Taters! A once in a lifetime experience. I'm in the opposite boat, so to speak. Daughter is out in Seattle, but I don't want to live out there. Housing prices are insane; it rains too much, and it's too far (I know that last one is irrational since I haven't said too far from where, but it's true).
That said, Seattle and the PNW is lovely to visit. I winterized my patio and most of the garden today. A sharp wind was coming straight from Canada and the high was 50F with no sun. November came early here: it's been gray and gloomy and WET here ever since I got back from Washington DC. Blech. I love to see skilled workers working, Wolfie. And I love the grocery store rotisserie chicken! |
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Yeah, the rotisserie chickens and the hot dog and pop for a buck fiddy at the food court are big, big draws. The chicken especially has knock on effects, as WinCo also prices their rotisserie birds to match Costco although they're noticeably smaller.
I love driving heavy equipment and a combine would be a blast--my friend and I have this long standing ambition to race two of those enormous pit mine dump trucks from the bottom of a mine to the top, squad goals for the zombie apocalypse I suppose. |
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Oooh, flannel sheets are so snuggly, I'll have to look for those when I go to Costco next week. My only quibble is that they only seem to stock in wimpy colors or plaids and I really prefer jewel tones.
I dunno what was up today but man, everybody was ordering a crapton of food and tipping very well--I went out for like 4.5 hours and averaged well over thirty bucks an hour without even trying and I only drove fifty miles total. Too bad every day can't be like this, it was a cakewalk. It was also brisk and windy and blue sky beautiful, that's my second favorite kind of weather. |
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I like the fabric on the Costco sheets we have, but I wish the top sheet was wider. The fitted sheet is plenty deep for our fat mattress, but I can't get a good tuck on the top sheet.
Weekend update: Friday, after yummy Thai food (Mmmm, eggplant basil!), I ran to Wallyworld for rubber duckies for Swimmy's cake (her request) as they were the only place near me that had them. After that I attempted to go to the grocery store a couple miles north, but the stupid place persists in closing at 8:00. WTF? I can see no longer being open 24hrs, but 8:00 is silly early. I had to drive two municipalities south to the other branch of that store which is open until 10:00 (same "brand," different ownership, different hours) so I could gather the supplies necessary for Sunday's party. Saturday I cleaned out the fridge to make room for cakes, made a pumpkin cheesecake and baked Swimmy's cake layers, brought up the outside plants and set them in their winter locations, and cleaned the house. Fluff Pupp was having a seizure day, so we were keeping an eye on her, too. We were on a tight timeline because we needed to leave around 3:30 for the final band competition of the year. We got there early enough to get good seats and sat through five hours of competition with 18 bands. It only rained on us at the beginning and the very end, and it was in the low 50s so not too terribly cold for late October, but not the most pleasant weather to sit in for that length of time. There were food trucks and hot cocoa which helped raise our spirits, and Our School's band put on their best run of the show all year. They really did themselves proud! We were disappointed with their score (there's a judge with an alleged grudge; his feedback was nearly all positive but his score was harsh) but they broke 90 again and that's a feat in this competition. Sunday was a busy day. I sang at early church, made brunch, assembled and decorated Swimmy's cake (two-layer lemon cake with lemon pudding in the middle, topped with pale blue icing, mini rubber duckies, and icing "bubbles"), ran to an indie yarn show where I ran into old acquaintances and got stuff to make Eldest and Swimmy new hats, picked up Eldest at her apartment, then helped the girls carve pumpkins while I finished putting party food in the oven. Family came over around 5:00 just as the pumpkin carving was finishing up, we celebrated October birthdays and visited, then cleaned up and I hauled Eldest back to campus around 11:00. I crashed hard! Fluff Pupp's seizures followed their usual pattern of every few hours for 24hrs, this despite increasing her phenobarbital last week. She goes back to the vet next week for a level check and a lyme/lepto booster. I'm frustrated because the vets continue adding meds and adjusting meds and none of it seems to change a ruddy thing, but she's still with us so there's that. She was in need of a grooming before the weekend and even more so now (she often piddles and lays in it when siezing), so I'll add that to my list of stuff to manage. Tonight I have to put the finishing touches on Swimmy's "Blood Fairy" costume (all her concept - a fairy all in black, including knee-high combat boots, with a pale and gory face) and I'm super glad no rain is forecasted tomorrow even if the high is only 45 because I've spent two weekends tromping around in the rain and that's enough. I'm glad to be putting this month in my rear-view mirror. It's been entirely too full of stuff and I need a break. MD needs a break, too, but she doesn't get one. Marching band season is over* but now she's running sound for the school play so she's got practice until 10:00 at night most nights this week. I'll miss her. *They have a Veteran's Day parade yet to do and they'll be marching in Kentucky for the derby in May. This would be fine except that she lost her left marching shoe somewhere Saturday night, most likely on the bus. I hope it turns up today! |
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Such a busy weekend, Solfy! Mine nearly stood still in comparison.
![]() Mr. Duck and I went out for dinner with another couple on Saturday, and it was lovely...which was a bit of a surprise, because the last time we saw them they were in kind of a dark place--or one of them certainly was, at least. It's not my business what changed, but I'm so glad! And we'll probably make some holiday plans with them now. ( ![]() ![]() Last week was my first week full-time, and I survived. Yay. But my work ethic has suffered a wee bit in the process. Like, I'm at work right now, yacking at you. But there is no way that I can work-work-work for 7.5 straight hours without taking a mental break or two (I elect not to take a lunch break). So, here we are! ![]() In other news, our Prius is kaput again--Mr. Duck is having to install new head gaskets on it for the second time in less than 18 months. He is not too pleased. He is also not entirely sure that his fix is going to "take" this time (I don't know why--my brain's got too much else to keep track of right now). We'll see. We may be looking for yet another used vehicle soon. ![]() Happy Monday to you all! |
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When head gaskets go amiss what often happens is that the heads warp a bit from the heat and that means the gasket can have weak spots that blow out easier under pressure than heads that have never warped. If you have the heads milled, which is a pro job that hardly any shadetree mechanics have equipment for, they'll last longer but his trepidation is likely justified. The Toyota truck that moved me up to Oregon blew headgaskets several times, in every possible failure mode, and after I retired it somebody adopted the thing and I hear it basically exploded and caught on fire on the lower deck of the Fremont bridge lol. It was a rattletrap but it made it up here and back twice!
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I surprised Mrs. Larsen in bed last night.
I filled up the hot water bottle and hid it on her side of the bed, disguised by some clever blanket placement. So when she got in she not only had the nice flannel sheets, but the bed was warm. |
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![]() I don't know if I've ever complained here about Mr. Duck's luck with restaurants. If there's a particular place he wants to go...it'll be uncharacteristically closed. If he's craving a particular dish, there won't be any of it left...or they've taken it completely off the menu (like the Pho place that doesn't make hot and sour soup anymore). His luck has lately been catching. Last week, when I was on the road for work, McDonald's couldn't sell me a filet o' fish because their fish fryer was broken. Last night, having a craving for a Subway Veggie Delight, I went there only to find that...their oven is broken! So there was no bread! Wah wah wah. ![]() |
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So I found a new way to go over to the Dark Side.
I have joined team leaf blower. The rental has a lot more tree that drop leaves that I need to clean up. And it was looking kinda daunting. But I remembered the leaf blower/sucker that I had been using on suction mode in the rock garden area at the old house. And converted it to leaf blower mode. And found out it works like a treat. I did about 1/3 of the yard and the (big) trash bin is full. I'll find out about other disposal options. But I have now joined my Hispanic brothers in singing the song of our people. Hnrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. |
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Looky looky, taters, one of the Riverside huskies got pulled and is in Oregon--just look at this sweet girl!
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I went over to Tractor Supply and got a salt lick and some alfalfa hay for the bunnies. I put the salt lick out under the porch. I won't put any of the hay out yet, there is no snow and hence plenty to eat. I'll dole out the hay when there is snow cover.
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We were out walking at Sandy Hook yesterday in the evening and the herds of deer were out in large numbers.
There are so many more than even 20 years ago. I miss the deer, we always had deer in out backyard at the last place. Now we're living in an actual town, everything is fence and no deer. At least no groundhogs though. My Environmental Group use to rent one of the old houses on Fort Hancock and that was where we were walking. It is so sad to see these buildings from 1895 in such horrible shape. They were rented and cared for by non-profit groups and we all got kicked out back in 2000. So much of Fort Hancock is devastated now. Such an awful decision by the National Parks Chief back then. |
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As near as I can tell, the goal of the NPS is to remove all facilities from the parks and have you come in by bus during the day. They have removed a lot of facilities from Sequoia and Tuolumne Meadows and not built anything to replace them.
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Weekend update:
I took Friday off because I needed to and the girls were off school for in-service. That turned out to be a good thing as one of the science classrooms at the HS had a small fire (bad power strip) around 5:30 a.m. that triggered the sprinklers and filled the wing with smoke. They had the weekend to clean up. Swimmy and I went to the mall to return some gifts she got for her birthday that didn't fit, a trip that filled her with joy. She's at an awkward size where kid clothing sizes tend to be too short (she's very long limbed) but juniors sizes are cut for girls who are further along in development and have hips to hold their pants up. For the first time in several months MD was home for Friday night take out and picked Chinese. She'll be gone every night this week as she's running sound for the school play, so it was nice seeing her for a little bit. Swimmy and I watched "Jurassic Park" because we're filling gaps in her pop culture knowledge. I was determined to have a chill weekend, so I mostly puttered around on Saturday. Swapped Halloween decor for Thanksgiving, did laundry, bought groceries, Swimmy made the homemade pizza (she's getting so big!) and watched "Clue" because I've never actually seen it. She fell asleep during the 1993 version of "The Three Musketeers" which was not as good as I remembered it. Chris O'Donnell's hair (wig?) was so awful it was distracting. Sunday was for singing, brunch, threw a pot roast in the oven and it was actually (gasp!) a beautiful day out so Swimmy and I went for a walk in the park while Fluff Pupp had a long overdue appointment at the groomers. After dinner we played several rounds of Mario Kart. I won two races out of 20, and only because I got lucky on the 1st one. I feel like I'm on top of things, at least on the home front. Caught up on cleaning, groceries, sleep, and sanity. Now to see if I can't get to the same point with my work in-box. |
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!Firstest Tag!, bestest stress puppy, Dis Thread luv u longtime, Dis Thread So Long!, EVER!, island of lost tags, New tag!, New tags needed, say things one more time, that wasn't a fish, the never-ending tag, this tag for rent, were tags go?, ZeenerPeenerCleaner |
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