I recommend Bijou at Vain in Belltown. I never learned how to specify what I want my hair to look like and generally go about six months between shearings. Despite my communicating to her in grunts and vague gestures she managed to put an utterly normal haircut on my head, which is precisely what I wanted. Nice work.

Her style, as you can from her photo, is rather on the vibrant side. I expect she'll figure out what you're after just fine. FWIW, I no longer go to her.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 4:36 PM on July 26, 2008

Born in 1976 and I remember salt licks in the supermarkets of southcentral wisconsin.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 8:11 PM on July 23, 2008

The gardener Elliot Coleman would say that you are not suffering from an excess of grasshoppers, you have a deficiency of geese. A friend of mine keeps his vineyard (~3/4 acre) free of grasshoppers with the help of a single goose named theo. He eats about a grasshopper a minute all day, every day.

The downside is that they're cantankerous bastards. I don't have recommendations for where to purchase a goose in your neck of the woods but I'd check craigslist and local feed stores.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 8:29 AM on July 10, 2008

You fail at life. Take your viral bullshit and get cancer and die slow.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 5:32 PM on July 7, 2008

Steve Solomon's Gardening When It Counts is a manual dedicated to this proposition. It's worth looking into because the author is not a (total) crackpot and has a good degree of credibility in the gardening world.

In terms of self-sufficiency, do not neglect the woodlot on your farm. You'll need it for firewood, mulch, free leaf litter, and construction material. Also, you can run pigs in it.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 7:04 AM on July 7, 2008

A while back I made this comment about pre-nups. It doesn't address all the aspects of your question, but there some helpful background on pre-nups.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 3:08 PM on July 1, 2008

Nature's Avenger is an organic herbicide made from citrus oil. It's certified organic and loses it's herbicidal properties in about four hours. The way it works is by breaking down the waxy coating on plants that helps them retain moisture. The plant then dehydrates and dies. Simple and effective, eh?

My own experiences: Less effective than the catalog claims, but that's to be expected. I was killing off a mixture of grass, blackberries, ornamentals, and scotchbroom.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 11:41 AM on June 22, 2008

The Intellectual Foundations of Information Organization by Elaine Svenonius is pretty much the authoritative work in my field (Google Books). It's dry, but taxonomy is a dry field.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 10:03 AM on June 3, 2008

Break the lease like your landlord is breaking the law.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 2:32 PM on May 12, 2008

Thank you, Miko!

Other relevant blogs:

The Blog for Rural America
Mulch
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 8:24 AM on May 5, 2008

This is a pure guess, but, based off of the roller thingee on the back, it looks like some sort of a powered, walk behind seeder, probably some flavor of homemade or home-retrofitted. I don't think I've quite got the correct name, but it looks right.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 9:25 PM on April 16, 2008

Slit seeder might be the proper name. BCS seems to have made one. I will note that an image search for "slit seeder" devolves into ask yahoo avatars very quickly. This is not a phenomenon I have any interest in investigating, however.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 9:32 PM on April 16, 2008

Like librarina, I live on 2 acres a 35-minute ferry ride from Seattle. In point of fact, I share those acres with librarina. The thing that's great about the Seattle area is that you've got a mess of islands a ferry ride away. This is not a great commute and if you take a truck/van/car it can get expensive.

However, Bainbridge Island, where we are in the process of moving, has a mess of farmland owned by the city and they're desperate for people to farm it. The cost of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 7:01 PM on November 30, 2007 marked best answer

Babysit or bring them food. If you can't babysit, offer to hold the baby so they can engage in such luxurious as excretion or basic hygiene.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 4:38 PM on November 27, 2007

I can't find a link, I'm afraid, but I believe that Ed Naylor passed away in 2004 or so. That, at least, is the date of his last activity on the steel guitar forum. Unless I'm misremembering, there is an obituary thread somewhere.

I posted at length in this thread about buying pedal steels and this thread about learning pedal steel.

The Carter Starter is the instrument I started on and outgrew in a year or so. By the end of that year I was... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 10:22 AM on November 11, 2007 marked best answer

Pre-nups are awesome. Basically, they're an instrument to ensure that the business aspects of a marriage do what you and your intended want them to. For example, your intended might want a pre-nup that states explicitly that you *are* intended to half of his money in the event of a divorce. I don't know, but that's not out of the question.

The idea of a pre-nup is that there are three parties to a marriage, spouse one, spouse two, and the community. The community is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 10:16 AM on October 6, 2007

In response to ikkyu2's entirely accurate statement about rights being waived, a pre-nup can create rights in addition to waiving them. A good lawyer (by my criteria) will make this process a positive and collaborative process and one that will strengthen your partnership with your intended.

Remember that this is not an instrument to protect one partner from another, it's an instrument to make your marriage do what you want it to. One of those things that marriage is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 10:55 AM on October 6, 2007

My wife and I each have Seattle lawyers that we're extremely fond of. However, we selected our lawyers based on their ability to amicably negotiate a prenup. Your situation sounds different, but both lawyers provide free initial consultations and are good at recommending colleagues that might be more suitable.

My email is in my profile if you'd like their names.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 5:51 PM on September 10, 2007

.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 6:18 PM on August 26, 2007

One could do much worse than listening to Swinging Doors on KEXP.

Dale Watson is about the countriest motherfucker alive. By all means, see him perform live before you die. He's a consumate showman and he's got a seriously crackerjack band behind him.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 6:58 PM on June 22, 2007

Harris Cyclery sells a modified Bianchi singlespeed with an internal hub. Unfortunately, it's not available mail order. It's a handy proof of concept though.

Internally geared hubs are wonderful and avoid, at the cost of a little weight and efficiency, all the hassles of deraileurs and exposed gears. This is a benefit even when you're not talking about kludging together deraileur mounts on a bike that wasn't built with them.

I had a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 10:43 AM on May 3, 2007

THD amps are hugely, hugely versatile but dead, stupid simple to operate. They have a built in attenuator and about three knobs. However, they are designed to take any tube you can find and are wildly adjustable. The downside is that there are no onboard effects (Hello, reverb!) and they might be too tweakable for a player who likes to fiddle.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 12:45 AM on March 24, 2007

If your partner is concerned about the nature and quality of the food she eats, and she certainly should be, ill-informed revulsion is not a great way to go. I'd suggest The Omnivore's Dilemma as a reasonably non-strident overview of some of the issues around food. The Future of Food is a good documentary, albeit one I couldn't finish because it pissed me off too much.

There are no easy answers as to what constitutes good food, but I'm personally convinced that good,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 4:56 PM on March 14, 2007

Crap, I meant to be all helpful and link to the book at your local public library, but there's some sort of session thing going on. Rest assured, they have it and I'll kick an OPAC vendor in the shins next chance I get
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 5:11 PM on March 14, 2007

Classification theory or knowledge organization is what those of us in the field call it. I'll have a better response when I'm done with my day's taxonomizing, but in the mean time, try and find Svenonius at your local library.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 9:38 AM on March 5, 2007 marked best answer

Nuun sells little fizzy tablets for electrolyte replacement that make your water taste like low sugar, low flavor gatorade, kind of. Very tasty. Also, they cure hangovers.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 9:18 AM on January 13, 2007

Behold the awesome power of Food Nerds!
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 9:15 PM on January 8, 2007 marked best answer

My wife got me an engagement ring. I got her one first, though. Mostly I wanted to do something official-like because we kept talking about getting married (to the point of both of us getting down on one knee to each other in a dusty ditch one drunken night in Reno) and I wanted to not spoil it with incremental proposals.

I'm old fashioned, I guess.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 4:52 PM on January 8, 2007

Are those sweetheart cranks? They're the ones where the cutout in the chainring is heart shaped. I can't make it out in the picture but it might be clear in the original and would help date the bicycle more precisely.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 8:58 AM on December 19, 2006

One of the things I learned when negotiating my prenup is the concept of "community," which is the interests of the partnership/family created by two individuals who get hitched. I like it a lot. Clearly there's times when my wife is not my first priority or at the top of my mind, and the same applies to her. However, my long term priority and goal is promoting the well-being of the community, i.e. our marriage. There's times when I need to compromise my own happiness for the community,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 3:49 PM on December 15, 2006

Have you been masturbating lately? Have you been using hand lotion as lube? Or any non-lube lube as lube? Because allergies to Lanolin and the like are rather common.

Of course, if you ever want to have sex again, go to a doctor. Even if it goes away, you have a responsibility to yourself and future partner(s) to make certain it's not something contagious. Any doctor should be able to help, but if you're short of money or underinsured, I'd make my... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 7:18 PM on December 1, 2006

Let me just state something for the record, I am not a doctor, I am a librarian. I know that I suggested the possibility that you've got nothing to worry about, but there are sores on your penis. Go to Planned Parenthood!
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 7:22 PM on December 1, 2006

I got down on both knees (subtle, for the surprise effect), then I got out the ring and said, "Librarina, will you marry me?" To this she responded, "Are you fucking kidding?" It was very romantic.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 7:49 PM on November 19, 2006

This earlier AskMe may have some useful suggestions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 8:58 PM on November 11, 2006

Great. Thanks all, I've got fewer pre-travel jitters now.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 5:15 PM on October 22, 2006

Heh. Time for a report. After we brought a radio shack transformer, we were dismayed to find that the freakin' thing wouldn't plug into the recessed socket on the wall, which we both knew and conveniently forgot. Cuz we're smart.

So we scared up a transformer that fit at El Corte Ingles, and gleefully hooked up our gadgets to the powerstrip and turned it on. It went *POP* and died. This was sad. Now we're sticking with charging one device at a time.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 6:30 AM on October 27, 2006 marked best answer

(Heh, turns out I can't mark my own best anymore.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 6:32 AM on October 27, 2006

Why not adopt a six-month or year-old dog from a rescue/pound/shelter? That'd give you the opportunity to establish the individual dog's personality, not just the breed generalizations, and see firsthand whether the pup gets along with your current dog?
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 12:38 PM on October 1, 2006

Faceted search and browsing.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 5:28 PM on September 29, 2006

Something like a Risa travel guitar.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 11:33 AM on September 17, 2006

Jessemyn posted about the superlative NCSU Online Public Access Catalog which is about as good as it gets for a complex collection. The Flamenco faceted search interface does incredibly well in user testing but it's efficacy will depend on how well your metadata address top-level facets.

I'm pressed for time right now, but I'll set up the mefibrarian signal and hopefully someone will show up and explain a little better why faceted search rocks.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 1:08 PM on August 27, 2006

Willie Nelson's tribute to Cindy Walker.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 5:49 PM on August 17, 2006

Steven C. Den Beste writes "It might also be time to consider a 'concealed-carry' license."

If this route is chosen, it is even more imperative to have a restraining order in place as well as a *long* trail of complaints registered with the police.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 4:54 PM on July 17, 2006

Evoluent Vertical Mouse. Like all ergonomic doohickies, I'd suggest trying one first, but I use one and it works great for my tendonitus. YMMV, but they've got a money-back guarantee,
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 6:59 AM on July 13, 2006

Bear in mind that if you play non-ASCAP, non-BMI recordings of public domain works, they'll still sue you claiming that they own copyright on the arrangements.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 4:52 PM on July 12, 2006

Some are probably scammers, but seriously, the Internet is *full* of people who can barely form a complete sentence and for whom operating a keyboard is a serious challenge*. I once received an email from an insurance agent's office responding to my in person inquiry about rates that had no subject and was written in all caps. I won't even go into the crap I see trying to book shows. There are a lot of scammers and spammers, but I feel pretty sure that they're outnumbered by illiterates.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 6:22 PM on July 8, 2006

FWIW, the Seattle DMV stuck me with a toy license when I switched over and I got the real one in the mail two days later. My girlfriend's license took a week to get to her. It's a different state and different bureaucracy and all, but you may get lucky and not have a problem. It was worse for me as I had a CDL at the time and wasn't allowed to keep my old license as a backup.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 8:08 AM on June 20, 2006

Dancing Cat Records is a pretty darn good place to start for slack key. Of their roster, James "Bla" Pahinui is my favorite. His style is more latin influenced than most of the current slack key players and (dare I say it?) more distinctive than most of the modern slack key crowd.

If you're into steel guitar, Jerry Byrd is the man. Despite being a Haole from the mainland, Jerry kept the flag of Hawaiian Steel guitar flying from his studio in Harry's Music in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 10:29 AM on June 18, 2006

Take it to ask yahoo, asshole. Keep the bullshit on the blue, the grey, and whatever the fuck color metachat is.
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 10:05 PM on June 16, 2006

I drive to Bellevue every fucking day for my job. It sucks, but the only thing worse would be living in Bellevue. It is a worthless, souless imitation of a city populated by vacant-eyed yuppies (you know, people like me) stumbling to their BMWs. It is *not* walkable downtown and, even if it were, there's nowhere to walk to.

Try to arrange it so that you'll be commuting by I-90. It flies compared to 520. Also, 520 is a dangerous road, it's an arterial that's been forced... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by stet at 5:54 PM on June 12, 2006