More than happy to help! 
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Ha, we figured out what the new home buyers were up to last night, when they used one of their remaining options to come in before the closing sale date for an hour.
As it turned out, they knew that we were having a clear-out e-auction of stuff, which closed last night, and wanted to come in and have a look at items, rather than anything to do with the house. (If it was their real estate agent who tipped them off about this, I highly recommend him!)
At this point, stuff that we don’t have to pay to remove, or expect auction winners to remove, bonus!
Apparently the concrete bird bath was a hot item, but not the new owners. 
Sitting on the deck in my new place is so nice, but the next 10 days will be the sausage machine!
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More about The Great Elephant Migration - those sculptures look amazing!
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I have to hop the Amtrak up to see these. I’m scheduling an appointment nearby- so hopefully get to make it work with one day trip.
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Doesn’t look like ATL is on their list of places so far. 
You can buy one of them, too! From around 8k up to 22,000k!
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The complainant is well known to the judiciary there for representing herself in multiple frivolous lawsuits of this nature.
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Glad she overcame the xenophobic haters, and hopefully the Miss Universe contest won’t have any further controversy…
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Anyone considering one of those $10K safaris to bag an elephant should instead consider – even at the greater cost – “bagging” one of these sculptures. The zero jetlag is a plus.
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(source: AP)
Michigan judge loses docket after she’s recorded insulting gay people and Black people
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A suburban Detroit judge is no longer handling cases after a court official turned over recordings of her making anti-gay insults and referring to Black people as lazy.
Oakland County Probate Judge Kathleen Ryan was removed from her docket on Aug. 27 for unspecified misconduct. Now the court’s administrator has stepped forward to say he blew the whistle on her, secretly recording their phone calls.
“I just want to make it right. … I want to keep my job and do it in peace,” Edward Hutton told WXYZ-TV. “And I want the people in Oakland County that come to court to get a fair shake, to have their day in court, to have an unbiased trier of fact.”
The judge didn’t talk to the TV station, but her attorneys, Gerald Gleeson and Thomas Cranmer, said: “We look forward to vindicating Judge Ryan in the appropriate forum.”
Probate judges in Michigan handle wills and estates, guardianships and cases that involve the state’s mental health laws.
In the phone recordings, Ryan uses a anti-gay slur against David Coulter, the county’s highest elected official, who is gay. She also referred to Blacks in the U.S. as lazy.
“I’m not systemically racist. I’m a new racist,” said Ryan, who was first elected in 2010.
It is legal to record phone calls in Michigan if one party consents. In this matter, it was Hutton, who said Ryan had called him at work and after-hours for years.
Hutton said he sent the recordings in August to Coulter; Elizabeth Clement, the chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court; and other officials. Chief Probate Judge Linda Hallmark then suspended her, with pay, while she’s investigated by a judiciary watchdog, the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission.
Her father, James Ryan, was a state and federal judge. A brother, Daniel Ryan, was also a judge.
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Yet another nasty piece of work whose past cases need fine-tooth’d combing!
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Go get 'em, Uncle Pete! but why on Earth give them 3 months to create a report that should take a few days?! I mean, the folks compiling the reports work for the damn companies, and have everything to hand! They’re not consumers - we poor mugs, invariably forced to examine every pixel of a site w/a Sherlock Holmes-stylee magnifying glass in order to locate needed information!
… The Consumer Protection Board said in a report for the hearing that it received more than 1,200 complaints about credit card rewards last year, an increase of more than 70% from pre-pandemic levels. Many hotels, retailers and other businesses also offer loyalty programs with credit cards.
Buttigieg ordered the airlines to report within 90 days on matters including how point values are determined, any fees that consumers must pay and details of deals with banks that buy miles from airlines and use them to encourage people to shop with their credit cards.
The order asks airlines to list any changes in their programs since July 31, 2018, including how each change affected the dollar value of reward points.
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(Narrator: they are not. Everyone knows they are not. The whole point of them is that they are not. By being asked the question, the airlines are being given free and fair opportunity to lay out in all fullness thousands of air miles of enough rope.)
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