Random thing you loathe right now.

I think you are being clear with boundaries and your expectations and they are failing to meet them. Hiring a trainer and taking effort to reduce their dog's anxiety is an easy ask for a normal, functional person who actually cares about their pet. (As a dog trainer, I've seen this type of owner before. A ton. It always infuriates me, especially contrasted with their purported preference for this animal over you, a human. If they loved their dog that much they'd want their dog to be happy.)

They sound like fairly unhappy people who don't want to take steps to improve their lives. The description of the dynamic reminds me of my inlaws - the father is always complaining and does nothing and the mother enables that. It also reflects how they handle the dog (creature has issues, but they enable the issues instead of addressing them.)

In your position, I would start sourcing other options (I know that's hard) and also stop putting in labor for them. I would basically aim to be a zero impact roommate - clean up after yourself, feed yourself, and don't do a hair more than required. If they comment, then tell them you've sat down and told them what you needed and all you got back was platitudes. Tell them you are actively sourcing other options, but that this situation is no longer tenable for you. If they would like you to stay, then they need to have a concrete arrangement where they uphold their end of the bargain and all parties have their needs clearly expressed with a good faith effort at meeting them. Keep this conversation warm but practical.

Part of the issue is some people have outsized emotional reactions to even the slightest bit of criticism, and some people look at a reasonable ask as criticism. "Hey, your dog needs training" translates into "you are a bad dog owner." People who act the way you describe the father are the exact type of people who do that sort of thing, in my experience.

I hope something here is helpful and, obviously, take any of this with a grain of salt. I'm not in the situation so I'm just going off of what you've put out there and trying to supplement the good advice you've already received.

drain flies

Searching for bar stools. And useless filters in online stores.

Just moved in to a new apartment in a new city, and we shed a lot of old furniture before coming so we're low on seating at the moment. Decided to get a nice couch and kitchen table set that should last us, but we have to wait 6-8 weeks for them to be delivered. We've gotten tired of standing to eat our meals, or taking turns sitting in the one upholstered chair we have. So, bar stools. But the breakfast bar is a whopping 46" high, which puts us in the position of looking for extra-tall bar stools. Local places only have options for counter or bar height stools. Which would be fine except that every. single. online. store doesn't properly filter for seat height. Even if they have an option to filter for "extra-tall."

Which is how we wound up with bar stools that were advertised to be 35" tall... which turned out to be the height of the stool back. I just want to sit down at a solid surface to eat.

Actually, put down furniture shopping in general. I'm so done with it.

I did a big audio upgrade in my 2006 pickup. Installed the speakers myself, then had an audio place do the head unit, amp to power the factory subwoofer (since it was powered by the OEM head unit that was coming out), and backup camera. Got the steering wheel control harness and everything. Nothing super high end, it is a 13 year old truck and all, but I had suffered the outdated OEM system and the awful muddy speakers for too long.

All that worked great, head unit has Android Auto which gives me up to date nav via my phone rather than the decade-old DVD-based nav of the OEM unit, backup camera works great for how cheap it was, lots of good stuff.

The ONE hitch - apparently the Pioneer head units do not accept the "push to talk" Bluetooth command signal that Android Auto could receive to trigger the listening, as opposed to having to say "Hey Google" and be recognized (that recognition being the spotty part). And even knowing this is an issue, I've had a hell of a time searching online to find reference to it existing, or even anything that would contradict the claim of a limitation.

I can still say "Hey Google" and usually be heard, and there is a touchscreen mic button in the top right corner of the Android Auto screen which I can pretty easily reach and push blindly (thank you for putting it in the corner, Google, though I'd prefer the left corner next time), so the functionality isn't cut off or anything. But the steering wheel push button would have been really nice.

I think what drives me the most nuts is how perfect everything else turned out. It's like 95% a flawless setup.

Now. Right now?
Every-f*cking-thing.

I assume this will change back to the default of "most things" at some point.

ActualDragon wrote:

Which would be fine except that every. single. online. store doesn't properly filter for seat height.

MOTHER

F**KING

YES

My wife and I bought a house last summer, and we've wanted to buy a nice new couch. And we hate how low damn near every couch sits.

But the concept of "seat height" seems to elude SO MANY furniture stores, manufacturers, etc, like they can't comprehend how that's a thing.

Living where we do, we're in a fairly lightly populated area as far as California goes, so our local options are rather limited. We're close enough to LA and the Bay Area both that we would have no problem driving in either direction to pick up a piece of furniture, but too far away to just head over to either city to try and browse stores.

So we try to look online to find things in our price range that fit what we want, and what we want is, "to not sit so goddamn low". And that's the thing hardly any place can accurately communicate online for no good reason at all. We just want to identify models that we can then try and track down, but we can't even get that far.

Rule of thumb: Anything where "fit" is the primary requirement should be bought in a brick'n'mortar store

Furniture and clothes being the obvious examples.

Jonman wrote:

Rule of thumb: Anything where "fit" is the primary requirement should be bought in a brick'n'mortar store

Furniture and clothes being the obvious examples.

Agreed, but...

ActualDragon wrote:

Local places only have options for counter or bar height stools.

Apparently extra-tall stools are a niche item. Maybe we'll just build some ourselves.

Jonman wrote:

Rule of thumb: Anything where "fit" is the primary requirement should be bought in a brick'n'mortar store.

There aren't exotic enough sex shops in my area for this to be realistic.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Jonman wrote:

Rule of thumb: Anything where "fit" is the primary requirement should be bought in a brick'n'mortar store.

There aren't exotic enough sex shops in my area for this to be realistic.

Yeah, that was the less obvious answer that occurred to me too.

But hey, you've spotted a gap in the market! So to speak.

Spoiler:

Comedic alternative answer: "Not that kind of stool"

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Jonman wrote:

Rule of thumb: Anything where "fit" is the primary requirement should be bought in a brick'n'mortar store.

There aren't exotic enough sex shops in my area for this to be realistic.

Sounds like a market opportunity.

*Legion* wrote:

I did a big audio upgrade in my 2006 pickup. Installed the speakers myself, then had an audio place do the head unit, amp to power the factory subwoofer (since it was powered by the OEM head unit that was coming out), and backup camera. Got the steering wheel control harness and everything. Nothing super high end, it is a 13 year old truck and all, but I had suffered the outdated OEM system and the awful muddy speakers for too long.

All that worked great, head unit has Android Auto which gives me up to date nav via my phone rather than the decade-old DVD-based nav of the OEM unit, backup camera works great for how cheap it was, lots of good stuff.

The ONE hitch - apparently the Pioneer head units do not accept the "push to talk" Bluetooth command signal that Android Auto could receive to trigger the listening, as opposed to having to say "Hey Google" and be recognized (that recognition being the spotty part). And even knowing this is an issue, I've had a hell of a time searching online to find reference to it existing, or even anything that would contradict the claim of a limitation.

I can still say "Hey Google" and usually be heard, and there is a touchscreen mic button in the top right corner of the Android Auto screen which I can pretty easily reach and push blindly (thank you for putting it in the corner, Google, though I'd prefer the left corner next time), so the functionality isn't cut off or anything. But the steering wheel push button would have been really nice.

I think what drives me the most nuts is how perfect everything else turned out. It's like 95% a flawless setup.

Auto's about to get a facelift, which I'm hoping moves that stupid mic button.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Auto's about to get a facelift, which I'm hoping moves that stupid mic button.

From the Phandroid video of the redesign, it looks like it will be bottom right. Looks like a bigger button, which would help.

I have detached the tendon that connects the tip of my middle finger on my left hand (it’s a condition called ‘Mallet Finger’ over here in the UK, no idea about our former colonies(!)) and I now have to wear a plastic splint on that finger to keep it straight and give the tendon a chance to heal itself. I did this by accidentally smacking my hand against a door and catching the finger at a slightly awkward angle.

I have to wear the splint for the next 8 weeks solid. Then another month just at night and there’s still a 30% chance it’ll
never heal anyway.

I spend pretty all day in front of a computer for work and while it’s my left hand (I’m right handed) and it could be a whole lot worse, it’s really bloody irritating and makes keyboard typing really difficult. It’s only been about 36 hours and it’s already driving me demented. 8 weeks of this is going to be torture.

ActualDragon wrote:

Searching for bar stools. And useless filters in online stores.

Just moved in to a new apartment in a new city, and we shed a lot of old furniture before coming so we're low on seating at the moment. Decided to get a nice couch and kitchen table set that should last us, but we have to wait 6-8 weeks for them to be delivered. We've gotten tired of standing to eat our meals, or taking turns sitting in the one upholstered chair we have. So, bar stools. But the breakfast bar is a whopping 46" high, which puts us in the position of looking for extra-tall bar stools. Local places only have options for counter or bar height stools. Which would be fine except that every. single. online. store doesn't properly filter for seat height. Even if they have an option to filter for "extra-tall."

Which is how we wound up with bar stools that were advertised to be 35" tall... which turned out to be the height of the stool back. I just want to sit down at a solid surface to eat.

Actually, put down furniture shopping in general. I'm so done with it.

Have you looked at Wayfair? They have a "seat height" filter in the bar stools category.

DeThroned wrote:
ActualDragon wrote:

Searching for bar stools. And useless filters in online stores.

Just moved in to a new apartment in a new city, and we shed a lot of old furniture before coming so we're low on seating at the moment. Decided to get a nice couch and kitchen table set that should last us, but we have to wait 6-8 weeks for them to be delivered. We've gotten tired of standing to eat our meals, or taking turns sitting in the one upholstered chair we have. So, bar stools. But the breakfast bar is a whopping 46" high, which puts us in the position of looking for extra-tall bar stools. Local places only have options for counter or bar height stools. Which would be fine except that every. single. online. store doesn't properly filter for seat height. Even if they have an option to filter for "extra-tall."

Which is how we wound up with bar stools that were advertised to be 35" tall... which turned out to be the height of the stool back. I just want to sit down at a solid surface to eat.

Actually, put down furniture shopping in general. I'm so done with it.

Have you looked at Wayfair? They have a "seat height" filter in the bar stools category.

Keep in mind Wayfair are unrepentantly supplying America's concentration camps.

Yeah, that's what eliminated them from my search, which was happening the same time employees were organizing a walkout.

Printers that make you jump through hoops trying to get a print job done because it insists the toner needs to be changed when it doesn't.

bekkilyn wrote:

Printers that make you jump through hoops trying to get a print job done because it insists the toner needs to be changed when it doesn't.

This works with Brother toner cartridges, might with others. If you take the toner cartridge out, and there's a little clear window on either side, cover one or both with a little piece of duct (or other opaque) tape. It basically has a light sensor or something that uses whether it can see through that to determine when you should replace the toner, but it triggers at about half-full. Got double the life out of my toner cartridges after that.

Sorbicol wrote:

I have detached the tendon that connects the tip of my middle finger on my left hand (it’s a condition called ‘Mallet Finger’ over here in the UK, no idea about our former colonies(!)) and I now have to wear a plastic splint on that finger to keep it straight and give the tendon a chance to heal itself. I did this by accidentally smacking my hand against a door and catching the finger at a slightly awkward angle.

I have this from rugby on my left pinky.
It never healed and now i just try not to type with it or else the finger kinda flaps on the keys awkwardly.

Dell.

My gaming computer sh*t the bed (power surge, we think), and my wife decided to surprise me with the revelation that she'd been saving up for a replacement, and we had enough to pull the trigger. Our company has a great discount with Dell, so I ordered a gaming laptop last Monday. Five minutes after placing the order, we got an email showing the status as "confirmed". A week later, that's still what it's showing. The estimated delivery date was showing at 7/5, but is now showing at 7/12. I reached out to Dell, and they explained that it's the intensive quality checks they do on each and every laptop that's causing the delay. However, I did a tiny bit of research, and I've discovered that Dell is notorious for ludicrous shipping delays, sometimes lasting months. Now I don't know whether to cancel the order, knowing that I won't be able to match the value I got with the discount anywhere else, or to hope that they actually decide to ship my machine this week.

Sorbicol wrote:

I have detached the tendon that connects the tip of my middle finger on my left hand (it’s a condition called ‘Mallet Finger’ over here in the UK, no idea about our former colonies(!)) and I now have to wear a plastic splint on that finger to keep it straight and give the tendon a chance to heal itself. I did this by accidentally smacking my hand against a door and catching the finger at a slightly awkward angle.

Unexpected bonus - now you're perma-flipping everyone off?

License sticker lost in the mail again. Meaning a trip to the DMV soon. Which is never fun.

Ours has quit with the stickers, altogether. It’s kinda nice

Had to return a bunch of stuff to Amazon, shipped back via UPS. Got a package today, thought it was an order I'm expecting. It's one of the returned boxes. Someone at UPS took off the taped-on label and routed it back to me because of the label underneath. Package still shows as on its way to KY.

If this has been the one I actually had to pay $12 to return, I'd be furious, but I still have to waste time and convince them they screwed up and reship it.

Jonman wrote:

Unexpected bonus - now you're perma-flipping everyone off?

Oh yes. However considering the amount of piss take there has been in the office, it’s mostly been fully justified. I had a meeting with some of the senior leadership team yesterday, even they joined in. However I didn’t flip them off.

Just tried black licorice for the second time in my life, it is without a doubt the worse thing I have ever tasted. Liver is gross but not as bad. Don't like brussel sprouts but I can stomach them. Squash is like eating puke but would rather eat that than black licorice. I can't think of anything I hate more than black licorice. And the after taste just lingers on and on.

And what is that brown crap in the center. Oh god is it actual crap. That would explain so much.

"trichy” wrote:

Now I don't know whether to cancel the order, knowing that I won't be able to match the value I got with the discount anywhere else, or to hope that they actually decide to ship my machine this week.

Stick with it. Temporary pain, man. Once it arrives, you won’t care that it took a while, and you’ll still have the extra money.

My favourite part about black licorice, aside from how good it tastes, is that when I buy a bag nobody else is going to mooch off me.

Carpenter Ants in my garage.